A New Life
by candyazngirl
Summary: It's been about 4 years since Bakura had stopped talking to Ryou through his mind link and about 3 years since Yami and Malik had receive their own bodies. Now Ryou found a child that looks awfully a lot like Bakura, but is this child really Bakura? Inspired/Based on two Doujinshi. Rated T for Puzzleshipping, Bronzeshipping, and possible Tendershipping. language, violence
1. Chapter 1

**Author Note: This Fanfic is inspired by two doujinshi that can be founded here**

bakuscans .tumblr post/28789368601/how-to-raise-your-own-bakura

midknighthikari .tumblr post/ 27497911373/boku-to-maou-doujinshi-tendershipping

**Remove the spaces to use the link and please note that I will not be updating this fanfic as crazy as I did with Open Book (About four chapters a day). Also I cannot read Japanese, so I don't know what exactly goes on in How to Raise your own Bakura so don't ask me. This is purely for my own entertainment.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh or those doujinshi**

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Chapter One

It's been a while since Ryou had heard anything from the Millennium Ring or from Bakura.

It's been about 4 years since Bakura's voice stopped talking to him through his mind link. There was no good bye or any sign he was leaving. 3 years ago, Yami had found this spell to get his own body and with Ryou left to help Marik separate Malik from his body. When Ryou insisted that Bakura was gone, Marik still wanted to try out the ritual on him. The results were unknown since they never saw the thief king's body. It's possible for the ritual to have failed, but Ryou didn't want to give himself false hope.

It was strange. True, the spirit of the ring made him do awful things, but he was also the only one that gave Ryou some company while his father was away. Now without Bakura, Ryou found that he doesn't really know what to do with his extra time anymore. Yuugi and Yami were probably out with their friends and Marik was probably distracted from Malik. Those two were always off doing some crazy antics, that Ryou did not want to know the details of. Either Marik or Malik decided that they didn't care whether Ryou wanted to listen to their adventures and decided to tell him every single detail that they can muster. They even greatly exaggerated a few actions or descriptions to make Ryou really not want to call and ask if they wanted to hang out lately.

The Yamis and their Hikaris had somehow gotten together in a romantic relationship after a large amount of drama that Ryou happened to be dragged into. Ryou had become close friends with Marik so he had to do some counseling whenever Malik abused him which was often so he gave Marik spare keys. That was the wrong thing to do, of course, because Marik would often just come over to eat Ryou's food, despite the complaints.

Ryou sighed deeply as he clenched the groceries bags in his hands. He's been stocking twice the amount he would usually would, because of Marik. Somehow, while he was half asleep, he grabbed some things that Bakura would only like, because he wouldn't normally eat them and Marik wouldn't touch the stuff. Somehow, even when thinking about food, Ryou's thoughts end up reaching back to Bakura.

_He's not coming back. _Ryou would always think of Bakura that way to remove all of those lingering emotions for him. He clenched his eyes closed to will the flooding thoughts and feelings from his being when he tripped over a box.

_Ow…What did I trip over…?_ He looked at the box that was opened. It was just a common brown box, but the thing inside of it was peculiar. It had similar white hair to Ryou's, no, actually to Bakura. He was wearing Bakura's favorite coat, only it was too big for him, because it was a child. It was a child that looked exactly as the Spirit of the Ring right down to the hair style, except this was only a little kid. It was an understatement to say that Ryou was shocked.

"B-Bakura?" Ryou squeaked out. He looked around frantically and woke up the little child. It was then that Ryou noticed that the words 'Adopt me' was scribbled down in a very sloppy hand writing. The child had looked up and let out a bright smile that Ryou would never imagined would appear on Bakura's face. "Is that you Bakura?"

"Who are you mister?" the child called out without a single stutter. Even though the kid was pretty much alone, he seemed strong, like Bakura. "Have you come to take me to a warm home?"

_Maybe I'm mistaken…_ Ryou thought to himself. Then again, where in the world would he find a child that looked just like Bakura? It didn't look like a cosplay, because the hair was natural along with the eyes from what Ryou could tell. Even if this child wasn't Bakura, Ryou didn't have the heart to leave, now that the child was awake, and pretend nothing happened.

"My name is Ryou Bakura," Ryou told the child, smiling gently as the child gently held his hand. It was adorable. He saw the little child try to pronounce Ryou, but only ended up with a Ry. Looks like Ryou was stuck with a new nickname. "What's your name?"

"I don't know," the child muttered back. "I don't have a name."

A frown spread around Ryou's face. It made it more possible for this child to be Bakura, but just have amnesia. Unconsciously, the hand of Ryou reached out to touch the young kid's cheek.

"How old are you?" Ryou asked gently.

"Three!" the child answered back, holding up his fingers to show exactly how old he was. Ryou's chest started to hurt. 3 years was exactly the time where Ryou tried to perform the ritual to get Bakura his own body. All the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. There wasn't a clear cut picture yet, but it heavily implied that this child was the result of the ritual in some way or form.

"I think that your name is Bakura," Ryou told the child. "Come on. Let's go home. It looks like it's going to rain."

The child blinked and smiled. He stood up and grabbed Ryou's hand. They started to walk home in an awkward silence that was soon interrupted by the little Bakura shouting out, "I'm hungry, Ry!"

Ryou smiled at the nickname, but frowned when he remembered who this boy could be. He told Bakura that he'll get food as soon as they get home. That managed to get Bakura to stop making excessive noise until it started to rain hard on the two. The child started giggling and running ahead, playing in the puddles that were quickly forming.

Splash! Splash! Ryou didn't feel a sudden urge to get him to stop, but if this was really Bakura, he knew that the Spirit of the Ring would somehow find him back as usual. He remembered those times where he tried to get rid of the Ring, but it would always end up around his neck as if he never tossed it aside. The next morning would always be Bakura scolding him about how he needed to take better care of him, because Ryou needed him or so he says. Those were good memories.

Ryou remembered something a long time ago. Of the time he was walking with his sister on a day like this, but then something happened. What was it? He struggled to think of what happened those many years ago. He remembered his sister running out into the street and-

Bakura!

He saw a repeat of the past in front of his eyes. He ran up to Bakura and held onto his arm before he tried to splash in the huge puddle that would form in the streets. Cars ran by and the child backed away in fear of the fast moving vehicles.

"Don't cross the street without big brother's hand," Ryou said to the child before he noticed that he was repeating the same lines that he said to his younger sister when she was still alive. He remembered that someone held him back that day before he suffered the same fate of his mother and sister. He supposed that he should be grateful, because Ryou had saved the child this time.

"Big brother?" Bakura asked, looking at Ryou with those big eyes. He looked adorable with his white, fluffy hair being flat against his head and clinging to his skin. "Ry is my big brother?"

"Wha?" Ryou squeaked out. He wasn't prepared for something like this to come around but he kneeled down next to Bakura and petted his wet hair. He couldn't help smiling at the child. "Yeah, Ry is your big brother now."

Hopefully Bakura won't remember this or else, he'll make fun of Ryou for being so nice to him. He'll probably taunt Ryou and put him through some sort of torture once he's back to his normal self, but Ryou wondered how long it would take for it to happen? How long exactly will it be until the cute child to become that hateful, revengeful spirit? Yet again, another sigh escape Ryou's lips.

"Ry? Big brother?" Bakura spoke.

"Yes, Bakura?" Ryou replied with a forced smile as he reached for the keys to his house. He hoped that Marik wasn't there that day. He didn't want to spend the day explaining everything when he wasn't even sure that the child was Bakura. Ryou only continued to call him Bakura, because he noticed that was the name that the kid reacted to the most.

"I don't understand. Are you trying to smile or cry, big brother?"

"What?" Ryou said as he stopped to look at the kid. Sure, he wanted to continue this conversation inside where it was warm and dry. But he couldn't ignore this odd question from the child. He waited for an explanation while Bakura was chewing his lower lip.

"Well, when Ry tries to smile it looks sad," the little Bakura tried to explain, but his face twisted in confusion. "And Ry looks like he wants to cry really badly. Does Ry hate me?"

"No, I don't hate you," Ryou said as he opened the door and picked up Bakura. He held him in his arms while he walked in. Bakura wasn't all that heavy, so it wasn't as difficult as he was expecting it to be. He looked around for Marik, but due to the lack of mess around his house, it was safe to assume that he didn't take today to bother Ryou. He tried to think about what Bakura said to him, but he was interrupted.

Little Bakura had sneezed very loudly.

Oh, right. Ryou couldn't forget the rain. He didn't want the little guy to get sick and die. If he did, then Ryou knew that Bakura would defiantly come back to haunt him. The thief would make sure that he would, he knew it.

"We have to get you warm and dry before you get sick," Ryou told the boy. He carried him to the bathroom and dried the boy with a towel. He frowned as he didn't have any proper clothes for the 3 year old as. He took off the wet clothes on Bakura and went into his room to get a button up shirt that was clearly too big for the little boy. When Bakura put it on, it was draping around his body like a dress that was long enough to drag across the floor.

Bakura didn't mind and started running around in it until he tripped and fell onto his face. He started to sniffle and Ryou picked him up right away before he started to cry by saying, "So who's hungry?"

Apparently the hunger override the pain as Bakura sprang onto his feet and let out a childish, "I am! I am!"

Ryou smiled and changed into dryer clothes before heading to the kitchen with the bag of groceries that were slightly soaked because of the rain. He opened the bag and started to put the food away. He turned to look at Bakura that looked really bored. Ryou patted Bakura's head.

He thought about what Bakura would like to do. The first things that came into Ryou's mind were of course stealing and revenge, but a little kid couldn't do that while he was cooking. The old Bakura also liked watching scary movies, but this kid was only 3. Would that even be okay? Ryou pondered for a bit and realize something very small that he overlooked over the years. The Spirit of the Ring would always sketch out a few things whenever he was given a chance to.

Using this knowledge, Ryou gave the young child a pencil and a piece of paper. He made a little note in the back of his mind to buy the little Bakura a box of crayons when the child's face brightened up.

"I can draw something, Ry?" Bakura asked, looking at Ryou, who replied with a simple nod. The young Bakura took the two items that were given to him and ran off to the living room to doodle. Ryou gave a gentle smile before going into the kitchen.

If the young boy really was Bakura then it was common sense for them to have similar tastes, though of course some likes might come later in life. Ryou frowned as he cooked. What if Bakura was stuck like this? Ryou didn't mind having the normally malicious Spirit of the Ring being a cute, nice child, but however he feared that he wouldn't be able to raise a child correctly.

Ryou finished making dinner and brought it to Bakura. He looked down at the doodle that was actually kind of cute. It was messy and unprofessional, but it was the kind of children's drawing you'd adore when you see a little child holding it up like it's a masterpiece.

"Oh, this is pretty cute," Ryou said, taking the picture when Bakura had practically shoved it into his face. "I'll hang it on the fridge later after you eat your dinner."

Bakura's little tummy growled hungrily.

Ryou laughed and put the food in front of Bakura, who almost inhaled it. Ryou had to take a napkin to wipe the child's face every so often when he made a mess. After Bakura was done, the white button up shirt was now ruined as well. Ryou shook his head and cleaned up the dishes after eating his meal. He put them gently into the sick and picked up Bakura.

"Oh, look. You made a mess of yourself," Ryou said fondly. "You should take a bath."

"Otay," Bakura said as he jumped out of Ryou's arms to get to the bathroom. The little kid couldn't keep still. It must be all the energy contained in his little body. Ryou couldn't believe that this kid was anywhere similar to the Spirit of the Ring who was often lazing about on the couch, watching TV, when he wasn't trying to do anything malicious.

Ryou took his time to get to the bathroom, but Bakura was already naked in the tub, even though there wasn't any water in it. The sight was cute.

"Bakura, you're supposed to take a bath in water," He told the little white haired boy as he took him out of it before turning on the water. He made bubbles for Bakura to play with and tested the water to make sure it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Bubbles!" Bakura cried out as he reached over to touch the bubbles when he fell in. Ryou's heart raced, but the tiny Bakura popped his head out with a huge grin. He laughed. Ryou calmed down and smiled gently.

"Ry's smiling prettier now," the kid said as he blew bubbles at Ryou. "Ry, should get in too!"

Ryou took off his clothes, because he couldn't say no to those adorable orbs that stared at me. He got into the bath and blew some bubbles to Bakura. They laughed and Ryou started to think about what Bakura had said while the little boy was playing around with the bubbles.

_Am I trying to smile or cry?_ Ryou actually didn't know. He missed Bakura, but at the same time he was glad that he was gone. These feelings were contradicting themselves and he probably would have heard the Spirit of the Ring teasing him if he was able to use his mind link. Ryou looked at the Bakura that was innocently playing around in the bath. Maybe Ryou was feeling a little lonely, but that didn't mean he was going to cry over it. The many years with sharing a body with Bakura taught him that crying won't get you anywhere.

"Ry! The bubbles are almost all gone!" Bakura shouted out, waking Ryou from his deep thoughts. Ryou looked down to see that indeed most of the bubbles were gone. He took this as a sign to get out. He rinsed both of them off and took Bakura out of the tub. He dried Bakura's body with the towel gently. "Ry, are you lonely too?"

_What?_ Ryou looked at the kid and forced on a smile.

"No, I'm not lonely," he'd say to cheer up the kid. "Come on sit down so I can dry your hair."

Bakura sat down onto the little stool and frowned. He looked at Ryou with his big orbs in a questioning expression. He seemed to be thinking as his face twisted around into several different emotions.

"Ry is lying," Bakura stated as he turned away from Ryou. That caused the Hikari to stare at the younger boy with a curious look. He shook his head and started to dry Bakura's hair with the towel.

"I'm not lying," Ryou told him gently as he smiled. "I have Marik and Yuugi. I have you too. I'm not lonely. I just miss someone."

Ryou eyes widened as he admitted missing someone. It could have been his sister or mother as he was treating Bakura like his younger sister, but he knew that deep inside, he missed his Yami. He fought back the tears that wanted to come to his eyes. Though Bakura was a child, he could still see that Ryou was alone.

"I don't think that person left," Bakura said with a pout as he closed his eyes to enjoy Ryou's gentle drying. "I just think that Ry didn't look hard enough."

…

"Maybe," Ryou said softly.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Different colored crayons were lying around on the floor, causing Ryou to sigh.

"Bakura! You left your things everywhere again! Pick them up!" Ryou called out and instantly the short fluff of white hair crawled out from underneath the table to pick up the coloring utensils. Ryou sighed and pet Bakura's head gently. "Sorry for yelling. I could have stepped on them and then you'd have no more crayons to play with, because they would be all broken."

"Ry is fat then," Bakura whined as he put the crayons into his box. He put them neatly and looks at Ryou. He looked around and tilted his head as he asked Ryou a question. "Why does Ry live alone? Where are big brother's mom and dad?"

Ryou's expression suddenly became sad and darkened, making the little Bakura tear up. The Hikari's eyes had widened in shock when he saw those little tears in those big eyes. Ryou panicked and flailed his arms.

"Don't cry, Bakura! What's wrong?" Ryou said hugging Bakura. It was only about two days since Ryou had found the little version of the spirit of the ring, but he found that the little child the type of company he needed to dull the pain of loneliness. Ryou became attached quickly and soon almost practically spoils the young boy whenever he cries.

"I made Ry sad!" Bakura cried out with a pout and a sniffle. Ryou smiled gently and pet Bakura's head gently.

"You did nothing wrong," Ryou told Bakura. "It's perfectly normal to ask those questions. Bakura, I live alone, but sometimes my friends visit me, so I'm not that lonely."

"But you look so lonely," the small boy stated as he took Ryou's hand gently. He smiled gently at the little Bakura and petted his head. It was so fun and nice to pet the fluffy mess of white hair.

"Hey Ryou," a familiar voice called out. "It was freezing outside!"

Ryou picked up Bakura, before going to greet the visitor. It was Marik. He did have a spare key after all, but honestly the Hikari didn't expect the other to come into his house so soon. How was he going to explain about the Bakura in his arms? Ryou decided that it was better to explain it now than later.

"Why do you have a kid?" Marik asked looked at the small version of Bakura. He poked the cheeks of the young boy to check if he was seeing things or not. Apparently, it was fun to poke around with a 3 year old kid's cheeks since they were so squishy with baby fat. Ryou looked at Marik, who was preoccupied with Bakura's cheeks, and noticed that the Egyptian decided to wear his normal entire that consisted of showing off his midriff in the beginning of spring. No wonder he was cold.

"O-oh, right," Ryou said as he tried to get Marik away from Bakura, who clearly did not like the poking. He tried to think up of an explanation before the other had come up with one all by himself. Marik's ideas were often not a good thing. However, it was too late, and Marik had jumped to the nearest possible conclusion for the sight in front of him.

"He's your kid, isn't he?" Marik asked. "Who did you knock up? Oh, how old is he anyway?"

Ryou was about to protest, but Bakura piped up with his small voice and said, "Three!"

Marik's eyes widened and looked at his best friend. He was speechless. If that was true and the child was Ryou's then that would mean that Ryou had sex with some girl around high school life. That wasn't true, because the British boy was a virgin. Marik, however, was a lover of drama and sent his imagination into the max as he came up with all these scenarios in explicit detail. Ryou had to cover Bakura's ears the whole time to protect his innocent mind.

"Marik! He's not my child," Ryou protested in the middle of some theory that Marik had about his sex life with a nurse that took care of him when he was injured. "He's Bakura."

"Well, yeah, I understand that technically he's a Bakura, because he's your kid," Marik said with a lazy grin. He believed he had everything all figured out.

"Who are you? I'm Bakura!" the little kid said. "Are you big brother's girl friend?"

"Girl friend?" Marik said, blinking. He stared at the kid. Actually it was more like a glare. Little Bakura trembled and hid his face in Ryou's chest. With a soft sigh, Ryou pet the young boy's hair as he looked at Marik.

"Did you really need to do that?" Ryou asked, upset that the little kid was terrified of his best friend.

"All I did was stared at him," Marik said with a shrug, not knowing what he did wrong. He probably thought that he could never do anything wrong. "Say, he looks more like the Spirit of the Ring Bakura than you do."

"That's because I think he might be," Ryou answered, looking at the two orbs staring up at him. He smiled gently at Bakura, relaxing the child. "He doesn't remember anything, but he has the same habits and tastes. The only difference is that one is more smiley than the other."

"Oh this is Bakura?" Marik asked as he poked Bakura's belly. "Why didn't you just say so?"

Ryou sighed deeply. He wasn't even going to reply to that question. Bakura squirmed in his arms and he looked down at the little boy. He was ticklish. That was so cute.

"Who is this?" Bakura asked Ryou, pouting. He didn't like being poked around with. He stared at Marik.

"That's Marik. He's a friend of mine," Ryou told Bakura.

"Friend?" Bakura asked. "He looks like a girl."

Ryou saw Marik's face twitched so he took a step back from him. He put Bakura down and the little boy ended up just clinging to his leg instead.

"He's only three, Marik. Don't hit him," Ryou said with a sigh. "He doesn't know any better and also if he was actually Bakura, then you might be running into some troubles later on."

"I'm not a girl though. I just happen to be fashionable," Marik replied. "So what are you going to do when you have class tomorrow? You can't really bring him to school."

Ryou's eye widened. Marik was right. Bakura was in no shape to be alone in the house. Even if it was the Spirit of the Ring's adult form, Ryou still wouldn't trust him being near things such as kitchen knives alone. He looked down at Bakura who looked back at him.

"I don't know," Ryou answered honestly. "I need someone to babysit him then. But I don't know who to ask and I don't have the money to pay someone to take care of him. Also, what if Bakura suddenly regains his memories and sends the baby sitter to the Shadow Realm? What if the baby sitter treated Bakura poorly?"

Ryou was listing all of the possible bad outcomes that came in his mind. There were many when Bakura was involved. He wasn't sure to trust a random stranger with Bakura or him with a stranger. It was just how things went if the child had the ability to send the babysitter to the Shadow Realm or worse. Ryou didn't want Bakura to hurt himself somehow either.

"Calm down," Marik told Ryou. "You're going to give yourself a heart attack. Why not ask Malik to babysit Bakura?"

"What if he kills Bakura out of amusement?" Ryou asked, as he paled at the idea.

It was true that Malik didn't go to college, because it was hard for him to find one that would accept him with no prior high school education. He, however, did not care. He simply helped around the museum with Marik's sister. It wasn't much of a career, but it kept from becoming some sort of hitman. Then again, Ryou had no evidence that Malik didn't kill people for money. He has seen a bit of a high bit murders whenever Malik decided to 'take a trip to Egypt'.

"Well, I can't do it. I have classes around the same time you do," Marik said, thinking. "How about we ask Yami and Malik to do it together? I'm sure if you explain it to Yugi, he'll convince Yami to do it somehow."

"How would that make it any better? If Bakura regains his memories, he'll try to send both of them into the shadow realm," Ryou stated. He looked down at Bakura, but there wasn't any Bakura right next to him. Apparently, Bakura had gotten bored of the conversation and began doodling on a piece of paper.

"Yes, but with Yami around, Malik won't try to kill Bakura," Marik said, as if he knew the perfect plan. Ryou knew how well exactly his plans went. It was usually not well at all. "And Yami is too much of a goody-two shoe to actually hurt Bakura while he's small and defenseless."

That plan was actually pretty sensible.

Ryou blinked and replied, "I thought you were going to say something stupid, but that might actually be bloody brilliant!"

"Isn't it?" Marik said. "I don't know what you just said there with your British, but I think that was a compliment."

"It was."

"Okay, that's great. Now can we get some food?" Marik asked. His stomach took this as a queue to suddenly growl loud enough for Ryou to hear it clearly. The white haired individual smiled and laughed at the random sound as he took Marik to the living room.

"Sure, just watch Bakura for me," Ryou said as he gestured to the little boy that was doodling up a picture of Marik. It was sloppy, but someone could really say that it looked like Marik. Ryou smiled gently and went into the kitchen to cook.

Bakura got up and shoved the drawing onto Marik's lap.

"Oh, is that me?" Marik asked. "It's not good enough. It doesn't show off my flawless tan enough. Oh what's that face on my mid riff?"

"It's a frowny face!" Bakura exclaimed as he pointed at it. "It's because your tummy made a scary sound! I heard it all the way here."

Bakura was referring to the loud growl. He was exaggerating a bit, but it was adorable. Marik smiled and pet the young thief's head. He always wanted to when he was partnered with Bakura, but he knew that the hair was either going to poke out his eye or Bakura would send his pretty ass into the Shadow Realm. The only response he got from this tiny version was a smile.

"So, your name is Ma…Mar…" Bakura said, but he couldn't say the name properly. He frowned deeply as he struggled with the name. He pouted and shouted out, "Ma! I can't say that name. It's hard."

Marik was about to fall off the couch. It really sounded like the young Bakura just called him in a manner that a child would call a mom. What was with Bakura's obsession with Marik being a girl? Marik just didn't see it. As far as he knew, he was very manly. Maybe it was the inner Bakura that was actually making fun of Marik? No, what was the chance of that happening? The Spirit of the Ring would actually find himself embarrassed to have called Marik that nickname.

"What's wrong?" Bakura asked as he looked at Marik. The boy blinked in confusion.

"It's nothing," Marik told him as he grinned evilly to himself. This was good thing to tease the other about when he regained his memories. He had to stop grinning evilly though, because Bakura had started to wander off in the house on his own. What if the little midget had gotten himself hurt? Marik had once angered Ryou and it didn't go so well, so he had to follow Bakura around. How hard could it be to take care of a little Bakura? Certainly it was less work than it was to work with the adult version.

"Get back here," Marik said, running up the stairs to get Bakura. He ran after the little boy, but he didn't know how quick the boy was. Marik knew that the Spirit of the Ring was very swift, because he had to be to steal important items and his image of being the thief king was predominant, but this boy was only 3!

Bakura laughed and continued to run around the rooms. He managed to slip by Marik and ran down the stairs. He jumped around once Marik had lost sight of him and hid in the closet.

"Shit," Marik cursed as he looked around for the little boy.

"Marik! Don't curse around Bakura!" Ryou called out from the kitchen. He didn't know what was going on in his house, but it sounded like Marik was having fun with Bakura. Marik was not having fun at all. The white haired midget held in his giggle as he saw from the crack of the door that the tanned man had not been able to find him. Marik looked in all sorts of places. He looked under the table and behind the couch. He even went back upstairs to see if he missed a room that the boy could be hiding in.

Marik was about to give up, but Bakura started to panic being alone in the closet without Marik in sight. He burst out of the closet and ran to Marik. He jumped onto the other and hugged him tightly. He was tearing slightly and not surprised when the taller boy had fallen onto his back.

"There you are!" Marik said, but then he noticed the tears. "What happened, Bakura?"

"I thought Ma disappeared!" Bakura cried out and he practically slapped Marik with his long sleeves. It didn't hurt Marik at all though. "Stupid Ma! You should have found me!"

Marik was surprised as he hugged Bakura. He didn't know what the young boy was feeling. Maybe he had abandonment issues. But Marik had another idea in his head. He remembered when Ryou was talking about that time that Bakura had showed the village of Kul Elna to him as punishment when Ryou had talked back to him. Marik did try to do some research on the matter and found out that the village was wiped out. He also remembered that Shadi had revealed the true past of the Millennium Items were more dark than people would expect.

The village of Kul Elna was sacrifice for the ritual to make the Millennium Items. It was unbelievable for some time, but it matched with what Ryou had told him. Bakura had belonged to the village. Though there were no actual records if anyone did survive the massacre. The only thing that said was that Kul Elna had disappeared overnight and that their people had a strange white hair trait that was predominant in their village.

Marik didn't tell Ryou the whole story though. He felt that there was no need to reveal what he had found out of his curiosity. Ryou only thought that the mass murder of the village was something that Bakura had done. Since the warriors had similar uniforms to the royal army, Marik didn't want to harm Ryou's relationship with Yugi or Yami. Marik didn't even know all the details. He's been meaning to ask Bakura, but this was the first time he seen Bakura since Battle City. He couldn't as a child that had no memories left to tell him about. But maybe Bakura's reaction was because of that memory that was deep in his soul. If only Shadi was still alive, Marik would ask him to probe Bakura's soul to find the right answers.

"Ma, what are you thinking about?" Bakura asked as he poked Marik's cheeks just like how the Egyptian was doing to him earlier. Marik suddenly regretted poking the child so much now. "You look so sad! It's okay! I'm not sad anymore! Ry said Bakura is strong."

Marik smiled at the kid.

"I'm not sad," he answered him. "I'm just hungry."

That answer had some truth to it. He was starving when he came to Ryou's house, now he was practically eating his own stomach out because of all of the running.

"Oh, me too!" Bakura exclaimed. "Let's go bother Ry until we get food!"

Marik liked that suggestion so he got up. Answers could wait. He walked into the kitchen to bother Ryou with a little Bakura holding onto his hand. Their plan of annoying Ryou to cook faster failed, because the other had just finished cooking a meal for them.

"Oh just in time," Ryou said as he put the food on the plates.

"Awh," Marik whined softly.

"What? Do you not want your food? Because I could just feed more to Bakura," Ryou suggested as he blinked. He picked up Bakura and helped him onto his stool. He sat at his normal spot at the table.

"No! My food," Marik stated selfishly as he sat down to eat the food that was made by Ryou. It was like heaven in his mouth, because Malik didn't actually cook. "So good!"

"That's good," Ryou replied with a smile as he slowly ate his share. Bakura had already begun to stuff his face with the food, making a mess of his shirt. It was only another one of Ryou's shirt, because Ryou didn't actually have enough money to buy clothes for Bakura yet. He only manages to get crayons with some pocket money he had left over from grocery shopping. Ryou sighed and wiped the child's face with a napkin. It looked like that Bakura needed another bath after dinner. It was starting to turn into a routine.

"So did you have fun with Marik today?" Ryou asked the small look alike of the Spirit of the Ring.

"Ma and I played tag and hide and seek!" Bakura replied cheerfully. "But Ma is really bad at them."

Marik wasn't actually that bad at those games. Bakura was just a very crafty person, even though he was only 3. Ryou smiled at the child until he noticed the nickname.

"Ma?!" Ryou shouted out, blushing.

"He can't pronounce Marik. Even though I think it's an easy name," Marik said as he continued to eat the food unfazed. He somehow managed to get used to the nickname quickly, but he still had a blush on his face.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"So you want me to do what?" Yami said, staring at his partner with wide eyes. He hoped that he didn't hear what he thought Yugi just said. He could have sworn that Yugi asked him to babysit the Spirit of the Ring.

"Yami, I have class during this time and so does Marik," Yugi said with a pout. "You and Malik are the only one free and Malik already agreed to it, so Bakura is worried that he will hurt the Spirit of the Ring if he's left all by himself. So, would you please?"

"Why does he even need babysitting in the first place?" Yami asked with a raised eyebrow. It's not like he was a child. Bakura could certainly stay in a house all by himself. Maybe Ryou didn't trust him to not steal or murder anyone. Yami could understand that. The Spirit of the Ring was pure evil. Yami considered this as a fact.

"Alright," his partner said with a sigh. "The Spirit of the Ring has a body of a 3 year old. You need to make sure that Malik doesn't try to do anything bad to him."

"And why exactly can't the Spirit of the Ring just protect himself from Malik? It's not like he has the mind of a 3 year old," Yami replied, irritated at the idea of even being near thief even under friendly circumstances.

"He lost his memories," the shorter version of himself told Yami. That was a shock. What would a Bakura could do without his memories and experience against an evil psycho that could probably use this opportunity to gut Bakura when he didn't know that he needed to keep distance away from him. Of course, even though Yami knew that the child Bakura couldn't possibly be any harm towards him unless he was suddenly a better duelist as a child. Yami just couldn't shake the feeling that he didn't want to go. He still thought that the Spirit of the Ring was evil for a fact and nothing would ever change that.

Suddenly a chaste kiss was planted on his lips and his attention was on his Hikari. Yugi had his little pouty face with those big eyes that seemed to just pull on something in his chest.

"Fine, I'll do it," Yami said with a sigh. He smiled when he saw Yugi's smile.

"You're just wrapped around his finger, aren't you Pharaoh?" Malik said with a twisted grin as he made his appearance in the entrance of the game shop. Marik was trailing behind him with Ryou who held the hand of a child that Yami could barely make out as Bakura, the Spirit of the Ring. The smile on the child's face threw him off. He thought that Bakura would look more menacing.

"What are you doing here, Malik?" Yami hissed out, but he stopped when Yugi gave him the look. Yugi got his bag with his laptop and walked over to Ryou.

"I'm here because Marik asked me to help take care of Bakura with you," Malik said. "Isn't that what you just agreed to?"

"I take it back," Yami said, crossing his arms.

"Yami," Yugi said in a warning voice. Yami looked away as he didn't want to become victim of the face again.

"It's not like I want to be here," Malik said. "But Marik told me that I don't have to work at the museum while I do this for him so obviously I had to do it or else I'd be bored to death."

"It would have done the world some good then," Yami retorted. The two glared at each other. It was common for the Yamis to have a verbal fight, but luckily no one was being sent to the Shadow Realm for some time because Marik and Yugi forced them to have a truce. It was clear that the truce was hanging on the thread most of the time.

Little Bakura ran over to them and hit Yami's leg.

"Stop bullying, Mama," cried out Bakura with an angry expression. He kicked Yami's shin and ran over to Ryou before Yami could hurt him. "Mama is big brother's friend!"

Yami's eye twitched in annoyance. The hitting didn't actually hurt him until the kick to the shin, but he didn't like how Bakura was defending Malik. It was like the two evil villains of his dueling career were basically treating him like a joke. He was going to do something to the short white haired boy, but then he noticed what Bakura was saying. A loud laughter burst from his rib cage as he laughed at Malik.

"Mama?" Yami asked. "He thinks you're his mommy? Well, you are the evil counterpart of one of the most feminine guys I met since Pegasus."

Malik's smile turned into a frown as he had to defend his honor. It was the most logical thing to do, but Ryou explained why the embarrassing nickname was given to him by the little child version of Bakura.

"He can't pronounce Malik or Marik so he calls Malik Mama and Marik Ma," Ryou said sighing as he hugged Bakura closely. He pet the other's head and smiled fondly. "You be a good kid. That man you just kicked is an important person to my friend Yugi. He'll be taking care of you along with Malik. His name is Yami."

"Ya…Ya…Yummy?" Bakura asked with his head tilted to the side. He looked at Ryou. "Is that right?"

Yami would have spit out his drink if he was drinking one. There was no way he was going to stand the Spirit of the Ring calling him that. Even though it was certainly less embarrassing than Malik's nickname it was still not a nickname that he wanted to have. Despite Yami's clear displeasure on his face, Ryou couldn't resist the face that Bakura gave so he smiled and nodded. Bakura smiled and ran over to Yami.

"So Yummy is going to play with me?" Bakura asked as he jumped up. "I'm sorry."

Yami closed his eyes. He didn't want to see the cuteness on Bakura's face and fall for the evil trick that he knew was behind it. He wasn't going to be fooled by it like everyone else. Once all the Hikaris had left for their classes, Yami knew that Bakura was going to show his true colors.

"Yami, I'm going now," Yugi said as he gave a really quick kiss.

The pharaoh opened up his eyes and looked at his partner. He smiled to himself. He supposed he could suffer at least one day for his younger counterpart. He glared back at Bakura, who looked back at him with an innocent pair of eyes.

Marik looked over at Malik after Yugi had given his Yami that public display of affection. Marik frowned as Malik seemed to be distracted by some poster, however when he looked away he was pulled into a mind numbing kiss. It almost got him hot and bothered, so he had to pull away. He noticed that Ryou was covering Bakura's eyes from the sight.

"Hey! I want to see, Ry," Bakura said childishly.

"No, no you don't," Ryou said and looked over at the two Egyptians to make sure it was safe for Bakura look. He took off his hands and sighed. He silently wished that he had someone to share a good bye of sorts before he went to school. He didn't really need a kiss actually. He just wanted something.

Bakura looked around, disappointed that he missed something. He did managed to see Yugi's soft innocent kiss so he turned around and jumped up to try to reach Ryou's face. He pouted when he couldn't reach it. Out of curiosity, Ryou kneeled down to see what Bakura wanted only to be surprised with a gentle soft kiss on the cheek from the child.

"Come back soon, Ry! I'll get lonely without you," Bakura said as he hugged Ryou.

"It's not like I'm going away forever," Ryou said with a smile as he pat Bakura's back. He kissed Bakura's forehead and waved to him good bye. Bakura jumped up and wave to him from the entrance of the game shop and went back in.

"Can we play tag?" Bakura asked the two, blinking at the two's cold stares. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh come on," Yami said, making a frown. "You can't fool anyone with that little act, Spirit of the Ring."

Malik appeared to side with Yami. He apparently wouldn't believe that Bakura would forget about all those times that Malik had annoyed him by stealing his spotlight. He swore that the Spirit of the Ring was trying to get back at him by embarrassing him in front of Marik. Of course, there was another theory that he had and his theories were not as outlandish as his Hikari's. He thought that Bakura turned himself into a child to either be pampered by Ryou or to trick Yami into falling into the Shadow Realm. In any of those cases, Malik was still peeved because he didn't want to be lied to by the Spirit of the Ring.

"What?" Bakura asked tilting his head. "What's an act? I just wanted to play a game."

"Yeah a game," Malik said with a twisted grin. "A Shadow Game, am I right?"

"What's that, Mama?" Bakura asked. He tilted his head as he saw Malik's face twitched at the nickname. The whole time, instead of wondering what they meant by a Shadow Game, he was wondering why was Malik's face making weird movements.

"Oh, don't act dumb," Yami said as he poked Bakura's cheeks in hopes that it would annoy him enough for him to drop the silly charade. The little version of the Spirit of the Ring squirmed and clung onto Malik's leg.

"What's a Shadow Game, Yummy? Is the Shadow Game fun? It doesn't sound very fun," Bakura stated with a frown on his face. He looked sad and hid some of his face with his sleeves. "I'm not stupid…"

Malik laughed and poked at Bakura's cheeks.

"I know you have your deck somewhere on your little body, Bakura," he said as he continued to poke Bakura's cheeks. They were really addicting to poke fun at because it was so soft and squishy to touch. Malik hadn't even noticed that he was doing this to the boy that could have contained the soul of the thief king Bakura.

"Stop it," Bakura whined as squirmed. He was feeling uncomfortable with the two larger beings staring down at him. He already missed Ryou. The soft, British Hikari would never put him through this kind of thing. "I just wanted to play tag or hide and seek."

The two stared at the boy. Was the Bakura they knew really gone?

"Really? You don't want to steal my Millennium puzzle?" Yami asked, not believing the truth in front of his eyes. Bakura looked at the puzzle with wonder spelled onto his face. He was attracted to how shiny it was. He almost wanted to touch it, but then his head started to ache. He looked away from the item and buried his face into his sleeves. The shininess of the object had temporarily blinded him.

"I don't want," Bakura said as he slinked away from the item. Malik noticed this and looked at Yami. He smirked. It was now clear to him that the child didn't really remember them, but he felt like he wanted to do a little experimenting.

"You really don't remember, Bakura?" Malik asked as his grin became even wider than before. "How the Pharaoh's high priest had killed your friends and family and made them into gold items of power?"

Bakura looked at Malik with big round eyes. He seemed to be lost in thought. Malik took this as a sign that maybe there was a bit of old Bakura stuck inside there. He ignored Yami's protests that denied the event, but he knew his fair share of Egyptian history. Malik was the one out of the three Yamis that could look at the story with indifference, because he wasn't there. The story was clear to his eyes.

"You can still hear them, don't you?" Malik asked Bakura. He noted that the little boy started to tremble. This was the first time he's seen such fear in the thief's eyes. "Their screams inside the objects? How they want you to get revenge for them? Don't deny it. I can see it in your eyes."

Bakura closed his eyes tightly and covered his ears. Tears were running down his face and he dashed out of the game shop. Malik laughed at the sight. Of course, it was mean to do that to a child, but Malik wasn't exactly a good guy and that child was Bakura who wasn't very innocent at all. Yami was almost glad that Malik did that since that would mean that he didn't need to spend any more time with either of them, but then he thought about how Yugi would react to him losing a 3 year old. Even if the child ran out by himself and it went against his inner wishes, the conscience that grew because of Yugi begged him to chase after Bakura.

"This isn't good," Yami said.

"What do you mean? Isn't this what you wanted?" Malik asked. "Besides, with that much taunting Bakura is bound to return to his normal angry self."

"What if he doesn't?" Yami asked. He actually believed that Bakura forgot everything now. He still thought that the boy was evil, but he was defenseless without his knowledge about Shadow Games. "Both Marik and Yugi will have a fit. I'm not so worried about how Bakura will act, but he definitely won't be happy."

"Your point?" Malik asked as he looked at Yami.

"Think about what happened the last time you made Marik angry," Yami said, seeing if Malik remembered the whole fiasco that they both had to deal with when they got their new bodies. Yami still did. The Hikaris all slept over at Ryou's house and insisted to have nothing to deal with their Yamis until they were ready which was for weeks.

"They wouldn't do that," Malik insisted, crossing his arms. Yami sighed out of annoyance. Every moment they spent arguing in the middle of a game store, the farther away was Bakura getting. "You have a point. Let's go look for the bastard."

The two went out and looked around to see what path Bakura could have taken. Oh, what rotten luck. They didn't even know where to start. Malik didn't have a single decent idea where the little Bakura even ran to and Yami was slowly developing a headache.

"Why did you even say those things to him? They didn't even happened," Yami said out annoyance as they walked through the park.

"You are really blind, Yami," Malik said. "It did happen. You're just too stubborn to admit it. You and Bakura should really know the events that happened, you did live through them."

"I lost my memories remember?" Yami snapped back.

"Well, even if you deny it," Malik said, ignoring the protest. "It's real to the Spirit of the Ring. Why did you think he acted that way? He's probably sulking somewhere."

"Then why did you do that?" Yami shouted. People looked over at the two. Some girls giggled and walked away from the two. There was a mess of white hair poking out from the bushes and sniffles. The two Yami's however didn't notice, because they were too caught up with their argument.

"Because I'm evil," the other replied. "Maybe the Spirit of the Ring died."

"For your sake and mine, I hope not," Yami said as he looked around. "This whole babysitting job would have gone a lot smoother without you."

"Yes, you'd be torturing the 3 year old without knowing you were," Malik said as he looked over the bushes. Maybe he could have escaped the annoying Pharaoh by pretending to look in the bushes, but he didn't know that he would actually find Bakura. He picked up the little boy. "I found him."

"Go away," Bakura whined out. "Mama and Yummy are mean."

Bakura squirmed and slipped out of his hands. He was about to escape, but Yami caught him and dragged him back to the game store. He sat Bakura onto a chair and stared at him. Bakura covered his face and sniffled.

"I think we'd still get in trouble if he's sulking like this," Yami pointed out.

"Then you find out what to do to make him happy. I did just find him so you have to do your job, Yummy," Malik mocked with the nickname.

"Shut up," Yami said, but then Bakura started to cry louder. "What's wrong?"

"Why does Mama and Yummy keep fighting?" Bakura asked. He sniffled and continued to cry. "I just wanted to play a game."

"Well there's a hint right there," Malik said, trying to ignore the fact that he was just called Mama yet again by the small individual. Yami rolled his eyes. He didn't need that statement from Malik, but he really didn't know what kind of game to play with a 3 year old. He certainly didn't want to play hide and seek, because he didn't want to lose Bakura yet again. He didn't want to play tag, because he didn't want to chase a little kid around the place like an idiot.

Yami didn't even know what kind of games that Bakura liked. Well there were two games. One was a board game that nearly trapped Yugi and his friends, and the other was duel monsters. Yami chose duel monsters since Bakura couldn't make it into a Shadow Game unless he was holding onto the Millennium Ring. Luckily for Yami, the Ring was on Ryou.

"How about a duel?" Yami asked.

"What's a duel?" Bakura asked, innocently.

"This is going to take a while," Yami said with a sigh.

"Well we do have about 6 hours before they come back," Malik said with a smirk. This will be amusing to see. Bakura tilted his head at the two of them.

"Don't act like you're not going to help, because you will," Yami demanded.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"I have a really bad feeling," Ryou told his two friends as they casually strolled to the game store that Yugi's grandpa owned. It was bothering him all day while he was in class that he barely listened to the lectures in classes. Luckily he managed to record the lecture with his laptop without anyone noticing. He was just worried about little Bakura. Malik was still a psycho, even though Marik claims that he has calmed down considerably. Yami did not like Bakura, not that Ryou would think that the Pharaoh would do something evil to Bakura. It was more like, he'd avoid seeing Malik or Bakura and somehow one of them would end up in the Shadow Realm.

"You should trust them more," Yugi said. "I have faith in Yami that he didn't let anything bad happen to the Spirit of the Ring."

"Yeah, relax, Ryou," Marik said, trying to reassure Ryou with a pat on the white haired boy's back. "Malik isn't like that anymore."

Ryou sighed and opened the door to see Bakura dueling Yami. He gasped and ran over to the two. He couldn't believe that the two would duel.

"Why are you two dueling?! You better not be having a Shadow Game!" Ryou shouted, but then Malik pat his shoulder to get his attention. It was obviously not a Shadow Game due to the lack of evil forces and real monsters, but of course Ryou was in parent mode where he was panicking.

"Calm down, that's not a Shadow Game," Malik said. "Do you see giant monsters in here?"

Ryou looked around and sighed out loud. "No…"

"Ry! Yummy and Mama taught me how to play duel monsters," Bakura said as he played his cards. "Now I attack you directly, Yummy!"

"…W-what?" Yami stuttered out. He actually lost. He face palmed into his hands. He was happy that this wasn't a Shadow Game, but this wasn't the first time that Bakura beat him. Maybe he was getting rusty? Yeah, that must be the answer. With the world being peaceful, they didn't need him to attempt to save the world with his partner.

"So wait, what? Bakura won?" Marik asked, staring at the two that cleaned up their cards. He never actually had seen the Pharaoh lose to anyone. He was like the invincible protagonist to some show or book that would never actually lose because that would mean the end of the series.

"I won Ma," Bakura said as he looked down at his fingers. He counted his fingers and brought up four fingers. "4 times! It was really fun. He won about 3 times."

"So…all you guys have been doing is playing card games?" Ryou asked, a bit skeptical. Bakura nodded and hugged Ryou. The Spirit of the Ring snuggled his face into the other's chest. He smiled at the warmth.

"Mhm, Ry!" Bakura said. "At first Mama and Yummy were mean to me and they made me cry."

"What?" Ryou asked, an aura was thickening around his head as he glared at the two. Founding out that Yami made a 3 year old cry, Yugi looked at Yami, backing up Ryou's glare. Marik fell into play with the other Hikari's with Malik. "You two made him cry?"

"It wasn't me!" Yami said, trying to defend himself. "It was Malik!"

"Sure it was," Yugi said, frowning in disappointment. He thought that the Pharaoh was above pinning the blame onto someone else. The two glared at Bakura, when he wasn't looking.

"But it is okay!" Bakura said, tugging on Ryou's shirt. "They made it up to me and played a game with me, but I had to use Mama's deck. Ry, can you buy me a deck?"

Ryou smiled softly at Bakura and hugged him close. "I have one at home for you."

It was Bakura's old deck. Ryou had kept it in a drawer all these years for sentimental reason. Ryou even still had his old Tarot deck, even though he felt that he should throw that one away due to the fact that Bakura had used on Pegasus right before taking his Millennium Eye.

"Really?" Bakura asked with innocent eyes. He hugged Ryou tightly and snuggled. "I missed you."

"I guess you two didn't do too badly," Ryou said as he ran his fingers through Bakura's soft hair. He smiled at the young boy gently.

"That's really sweet, right Yami?" Yugi asked, looking at Yami who only grunted in reply. Yugi frowned and sighed. "I hope you got over your little grudge towards the Spirit of the Ring, because you two will baby sit him every day that the three of us are in class."

Malik protested, rather loudly. He enjoyed watching Yami lose to Bakura and making a 3 year old cry, but he didn't want to spend any more of his time with them. He should have just continued to torture Bakura until he remembered everything so that he could spend his day off tomorrow in peace. But no, he went soft on the little guy and decided to teach him how to play duel monsters.

"Malik, don't worry," Marik said. "I'll reward you when we're at home."

There was a not so subtle wink at Malik. Marik's Yami had smirked like a pervert and thought about all the positions that he wanted to try in bed. Ryou frowned at how open they were in their relationship and looked at Bakura. The little boy sensed the sad mood coming from Ryou and hugged him.

"Don't worry, you have me!" Bakura declared and he hugged Ryou. He frowned and looked like he was going to cry. "If Mama and Yummy don't want to play with me then I'll stay home and wait for Ry to come home. I'll be a good boy so don't be sad…"

Those tears were like Yugi's pout. They were practically irresistible. Marik and Yugi rushed over to him and tried to stop the little child from crying. Yami's jaw almost dropped at how the Hikaris had fawn over a teary Bakura. He crossed his arms, upset. Malik didn't look to be very pleased either.

"We have to do something about him," Malik whispered over to Yami. The Pharaoh only nodded to show that he agreed with him.

"What are you two talking about?" Yugi asked, looking at the two who were suspiciously getting along. He was still hugging Bakura so Yami sent a soft glare to the boy, hoping that his Hikari wouldn't notice. Luckily, Yugi didn't even give him a second glance as he returned his attention to Bakura who was talking about duel monsters and what he had learned from 'Mama'. Yami frowned as he was being ignored.

The two slipped to the back and started to plot a way to get Bakura's memories back so that he'd stop taking away their Hikari's attention away from them. Truthfully, if it was any other child, they wouldn't care, but this was Bakura. They just didn't like it. What more was there to explain?

"Don't worry," Ry said gently. "Maybe you just made Malik and Yami tired. It's not like they hate you or anything. How about when you go over tomorrow you try to watch TV or something?"

"I guess," Bakura mumbled and looked at Ry's Millennium Ring. He touched the object that felt at home at his hands, but it hurt his head to touch it. "Ry, what is this? Why do you wear it all the time?"

"Oh this?" Ryou asked. He looked down at the gold object and looked at Yugi, communicating subtly with his eyes. Yugi shook his head. It was too soon to tell a child anything about the dark items. Forcing any information onto him might make his recovery worse. "This was a gift from my father and a memento of someone."

"Is that why you're so sad?" Bakura asked. "Why do you wear it then?"

"Because it keeps that person close to me," Ryou answered, gently caressed the item and looked at Bakura. He sighed gently and put it away into his shirt. "When it's on me like this, it keeps the person close to my heart."

"Who is this person?" the little boy asked, looking at Ryou with big eyes.

"Should we tell him?" Marik asked, frowning at the small boy. He didn't know how long exactly this innocent would last and even though Ryou was close to Bakura, it hurt him to talk about him like he was dead to the young version of the Spirit of the Ring. "Oh, wait. We don't know for sure if he's the Spirit of the Ring or not yet, right?"

"No, he's definitely Bakura," Malik answered as he walked out from the back. He smirked, happy that he knew something that the others did not. "I told him about the Millennium Items and told him about Kul Elna and he started freaking out."

"Wait, so that's why he cried?" Ryou asked. He looked down at Bakura, who had flinched at the words of that destroyed village. There were these deep emotions of fear in those orbs that stared at Marik. The little boy didn't want to hear the rest of the story. He didn't know why yet, but it gave a similar vibe that Malik gave when he said those confusing words to him. "Wait, why would that make him cry? I thought…"

"Ryou, I didn't tell you the whole story," Marik said with a frown. Yugi was entirely lost. He never heard of this story. Bakura had cling onto Ryou, trembling like he was in fear. "Kul Elna was destroyed. There wasn't a soul in sight or a body. The bodies were thrown into this ritual to make the Millennium Items. Bakura, the Spirit of the Ring, blamed this on the Pharaoh."

Yami was about to protest, but he was silenced by his partner's look.

"I wouldn't blame him either," Marik said. "It wasn't the Pharaoh's father that ordered the attack, but it was someone high up in power. Probably if Yami knew where the items were made and how, he wouldn't have showed them off. They hold their power that is connected to the Shadow Realm, because they are Dark Items."

"It hurts," Bakura whined as he cried into Ryou's chest, however Malik continued the story.

"Bakura, the Thief King, set his anger onto the Pharaoh and made a contract with evil forces," Malik said. "Forces, eviler than I am. He just wanted revenged for his family and friends. Power drives people mad after all, I should know."

"Stop it!" Bakura yelled as he covered his ears and shut his eyes. He wanted to shut himself from the world. He didn't want to hear anything more. Why did those two have to ruin things for him? Just when he had found Ryou and gained something that was close to true happiness for once in his life. Rage boiled up inside of him.

"Was that really what happened?" Yugi asked, looking at Bakura with pity. Bakura had opened his eyes and looked at the pair of eyes that showed that blasted emotion of sympathy. The rage was boiled even hotter. Even Marik held those eyes for him. He turned to look at Ryou and hoped that the same emotion wasn't in his.

The eyes were closed. Ryou's mouth was forming a straight line. He was lost in thought. It was very difficult to absorb all of the information into his head, but one thing was clear. Ryou smiled. Bakura looked at the expression with wide, trembling eyes in wonder.

"Why are you smiling?" Bakura asked, his voice soft, barely above a whisper.

"You made it really far," Ryou said. "You're really strong. I'm so proud of you, but you don't have to be alone anymore. You have me, right?"

Bakura's eyes began to tear up as he hugged Ryou tightly and cried into his chest. Malik frowned. He was hoping that Bakura would remember and escape like he did earlier, hopefully remembering everything so he'd stop being so cute and innocent. Malik didn't like how his Hikari was paying most of his attention to the child.

"Ry, Ry," Bakura cried out. "I want to go home!"

Ryou smiled and said good bye to his friends. They frowned and waved them good bye. They knew how to sense the mood for the most part and turned to their Yamis.

"Ry, do you hate me?" Bakura asked, in an innocent tone.

"No, of course not," Ryou said, holding Bakura's hand gently. "I would never hate you."

"Then why do you look so sad when you look at me," the boy asked. Ryou stopped and hid his face behind his bangs. He looked over at Bakura and his eyes seemed to be looking past the short boy.

"You look like someone I knew," Ryou said. He picked up the other boy. Ryou noted that the boy was too light, so he made a little grocery list in the back of his mind to fatten up Bakura a little, then he noticed how sad that Bakura looked. He forced a smile. "You're too small to be in my clothes. Tomorrow you'll wear your old clothes and we'll go shopping for some clothes for you okay?"

"It's okay," Bakura said. "I like wearing Ry's clothes! They smell nice."

Ryou blushed and opened the door to his house. He walked in with Bakura and turned on the lights before closing the door. He picked up Bakura and smiled gently.

"What do you want for dinner? You look hungry," Ryou said and frowned. "Did they even feed you?"

"Nope!" Bakura replied happily. "I want ice cream!"

"No? Oh I'll pack you a lunch next time," Ryou said as he mumbled. "You have to eat dinner Bakura, not just sweets."

"Oh, okay," the child said with a frown. He sat down at the table in the kitchen and waited for Ryou to cook dinner. His little tummy growled loudly so he slouched onto the flat surface, staring at his empty plate. He hoped that good would arrive in his tummy soon. He felt like he was eating himself.

"My head keeps hurting," Bakura whined as he held his head gently. "Am I sick, Ry?"

"Huh?" Ryou looked over at Bakura and touched the child's forehead. "Maybe a little. You do feel warm."

Bakura gasped and covered his face cutely with a napkin. He closed his eyes and held breath.

"What are you doing?" Ryou asked.

"I'm trying to make sure Ry doesn't get sick," Bakura said as he continued to hold his breath until his face was starting to turn blue. Ryou instantly got worried.

"Don't do that!" he scolded as he took the napkin away from Bakura. "You can breathe. I won't get sick that easily."

Bakura looked at him innocently and breathed slowly, until he hiccupped. Ryou laughed as the small version of the Spirit of the Ring was practically hiccupping off his chair. Bakura pouted as he didn't know what was so funny. This whole ordeal was just embarrassing.

Ryou gave him a glass of water, which Bakura gulped down faster than Malik could with alcohol. A smile spread across Ryou's face as he pat the young child's back.

"Thank you," Bakura said. "For everything Ryou."

Ryou frowned and hugged Bakura tightly. The little boy didn't understand why the other had done this movement. Now that Ryou knew for certain that the young boy was Bakura, he couldn't resist this long and meaningful hug.

"Don't say it like that…You sound like you're going away," Ryou said so softly, that Bakura could barely hear it. The voice sounded to be in pain. Bakura slowly hugged the other back and smiled gently. So this was how it felt to be needed by someone else. This was what it meant to live for someone else.

"I will stay with Ry forever," Bakura declared childishly.

"You promise?" Ryou asked. He extended his pinky. Bakura wrapped his pinky around Ryou and nodded. He smiled even wider and hugged his Hikari close to his body.

"You have to promise that you'll never leave me too," Bakura stated. "So that way it's fair."

"Alright, I promise you."

The bright, shinning face upon the snowy white haired boy almost melted away all the pain that Ryou had in his heart. It almost made him forget about the letters that he continued to write to his dead sister and how terribly he missed his mom. All he needed at the moment was the short little midget version of Bakura. It didn't matter how much the other had hurt him in the past.

"I promise, I'll never leave you."

Those words held more to it then what Bakura could read into. It was more than just a pinky promise. It was a vow.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

_ A familiar place was in front of Ryou._

_ At first, he had forgotten and glided his hands gently across the rough stone walls. He looked at the door that appeared in front of him. It reminded him of his Soul Room's door. Then he blinked, realizing where he must be. It wasn't very often he found himself in here and it's been many years. The last time he was here, Ryou was subjected to the torture of the memories of Kul Elna._

_ His hands went to the door knob without much thought. He opened the door and was sucked into the sandy desert. He looked around to see flames. Ryou snuck into the alleyway as the soldiers ran past him. Could they not see him?_

_ "This must be an illusion," Ryou said softly. "A memory that belonged to Bakura."_

_ "Ry?" a soft voice called out to him, the echoes of sobbing came flowing after. Ryou turned around and ran in direction of the sound. He stumbled a little, not being used to running in these kinds of conditions and found the little fluff ball hiding from the soldiers. Ryou saw the corpses thrown into a pot. Ryou ran and hugged the little Bakura and shielded him away from the sight._

_ The little boy cried into Ryou's chest, but he tried to be quiet as the soldiers were still nearby. He clenched Ryou's shirt and looked up at him._

* * *

Gasping for breath, Ryou woke up and looked at the little boy that was snuggling the pillow. Ryou sighed in relief, but noticed that little Bakura was trembling and sobbing in his sleep. Ryou grabbed Bakura's shoulder and shook him.

"Ry!" Bakura cried out and hugged him tightly. "It was horrible!"

Ryou frowned and hugged Bakura gently. He wondered if the little Bakura was having the same dream as him. If he was then that was the Soul Room of the Spirit of the Ring. Ryou gently rubbed Bakura's back and let the small boy cry it out. Looking at the time, he saw that it was 6 in the morning. It was early, but if they went back to sleep then Ryou would miss class.

"Bakura," Ryou said softly, as the little boy sniffled. "I know what will make you feel better. We'll make some cookies for you and the others."

"Cookies?" Bakura asked with watery eyes. He wiped his eyes with his sleeves and made a mess of his clothes with snot. Ryou grimaced and took off the shirt that he lent to the little boy. "Bath time first?"

"Yeah, bath time first," Ryou said as he put the shirt in the basket of dirty laundry. He picked up the naked Bakura and carried him to the bathroom. He started up the water and sat Bakura on the edge of the bath. "So why don't you tell me about your dream?"

Bakura winced and looked at Ryou. He shook his head and hugged Ryou close. He kept his mouth shut and cling onto Ryou like he would suddenly disappear.

"Do I really have to stay with Mama and Yummy today?" Bakura asked, even though he had gotten used to the two. It took a couple weeks, but he managed to be fine around the two as long as he wasn't doing anything annoying. Bakura learned that Yami did not like tag and Malik was scary during hide and seek. Ryou asked why, but the little version of the Spirit of the Ring said that it was too scary to tell him. Ryou just left it as that, believing the little man's words.

"Why, do you not like them?" Ryou asked. "Did Mama do something scary again?"

"No," Bakura whined. "I just to stay with Ry."

"Ry has to go to school," Ryou said softly, but he kissed the young boy's forehead. "There's no one else to take care of you."

"I'll hide in Ry's bag and be very quiet!" Bakura exclaimed and buried his face into Ryou's chest. The Hikari realize that Bakura was acting this way because of the nightmare and hugged the smaller body gently.

"You can't fit in the bag," Ryou said as he gently lifted up Bakura and placed him in the bath. He shut off the running water and took off his own clothes. Ryou got in and the little white fluff ball had snuggled against his chest. Ryou blushed gently, but he shook his head because Bakura didn't have his memory yet and was still in a young body.

Bakura gained only a little bit of his memories. Every so often he would draw someone that the little version of the Spirit of the Ring didn't meet yet, like Yugi's friends. It was clear that some of the memories were coming back to Bakura. Ryou frowned as he thought about what the little boy would act if he regained all of his memories. The peaceful, cute days with the young Bakura might all be gone.

"Then maybe something will happen to Ry's school and then big brother won't have to go there anymore," Bakura said with a pout. "I just want to spend time with Ry."

"Don't say something like that," Ryou said gently. "There's a break soon so I'll be with you for a whole week without having to go to school."

"Really?" Bakura asked as he smiled. He relaxed on Ryou's chest and looked up at Ryou. "Will Ry come for me soon?"

"Of course, today is Friday," Ryou said. "I don't have that many classes today."

Ryou smiled and splashed water in Bakura's face to clean it. However the little boy didn't like that and wiped the water off his face. He made an offended face and splashed some water at Ryou. The Hikari didn't care if they were messing the bathroom up and that he had to clean it up later. He continued to play with the young boy until he got tired.

"Okay, okay," Ryou said. "I lost."

Bakura cheered as he got out of the bathroom. He almost slipped and hit his head, because the floor was now wet. Ryou caught him just in time.

"Be careful!" he exclaimed. "You almost hurt yourself."

The little boy got onto his feet slowly and got a towel. He wrapped it around himself like a cape and Ryou laughed. He got up from the bath and took a towel for himself to dry himself. He drained the water and gave Bakura something to wear. The 3 year old managed to put the shirt on, but he fell over when he tried to put on the pants. Ryou rushed over to see if he was hurt, but it seem like he was okay.

"Help!" Bakura cried out, rolling around. Ryou sighed and put on the pants on him. He left to put on his own clothes and the little Bakura had followed him to the bedroom.

"Sometimes big brother looks like a girl," Bakura commented as Ryou was looking for what to wear. He was apparently taking his time choosing out his clothes for the day.

"A girl?" Ryou said with a huff. "I don't see it. I understand why you think Marik is a girl, but I am not one."

"But you have such long hair!" Bakura said, combing his little fingers through the long hair. "It's really soft."

"You have long hair too," Ryou said as he rubbed Bakura's head. "Besides, you know that I'm a boy."

Ryou put on his clothes and picked up Bakura to get him to the kitchen. He took out the flour and eggs, along with the vanilla extract.

"What kind of cookies do you want to make?" Ryou asked as he put Bakura on the counter. "Sugar cookies? Chocolate chip cookies? Chocolate cookies?"

"Chocolate chip cookies!" Bakura shouted out as he squirmed. He could barely keep still. Ryou gently rubbed Bakura's head.

* * *

"These cookies are good," Yugi said, munching on some as he walked with Marik and Ryou to the college. It was odd for him to walk with the two to school in the beginning, but he has gotten used to Marik's flirting with him whenever he felt bored. He also learned how to get Ryou to talk was to talk to him first.

"Yeah, it was hard to stop Bakura from eating all of them," Ryou said as he smiled gently.

"How is it living with the little kid?" Marik asked as he took a big bite of his cookie. "Is he giving you any trouble?"

"Well, he's been having nightmares lately," Ryou admitted. "And I have been having these nightmares as well."

"What kind of nightmares?" Yugi asked, curious.

"Well, they are of Kul Elna," the other replied. He looked down at his Millennium Ring. "Bakura would wake up and cry about how he didn't want me to go to school, because he's lonely without me."

"That's really cute."

"Yeah, but I'm getting less and less sleep," Ryou said with a sigh. He didn't know what to do about the nightmares. He knew they were about Bakura's Soul Room, but he wasn't sure if he really actually went into the Soul Room or it was just the collected stress that Marik gave him whenever he mentioned Kul Elna.

"Yeah," Marik said. "But that might mean that Bakura is regaining his memories."

"I know, but if he regains his memories," Ryou muttered softly, but Yugi managed to catch it and interoperate what Ryou meant to say next.

"You're worried that he's going to try and get his revenge when he remembers right?" Yami asked. "Maybe he won't."

"No, he will," Ryou said. "You don't know how he bent on revenge he is. Besides, I'm more worried that once he regains his memories he'll leave again."

"Why do you like him?" Marik asked. "Oh, you pedophile. He's only 3 right now."

"No, not like that!" the other protested. "I just like someone living with me in my house."

"Oh you're feeling lonely?" Yugi asked. "We can always move in."

Ryou paled. He shook his head quickly. He didn't want the two Yamis think that Bakura was trying to take away their Hikaris or think that they did something wrong. Ryou still remembered what happened last time, and his friends probably didn't notice it, but Ryou was seriously disturbed by the event.

"You sure?" Marik asked.

"I'm sure," Ryou said with a nod. "I'll see you guys after class."

They waved good bye to each other as they went their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Bakura was watching a DVD that Yami had of the Battle City tournament. He watched with his total attention as they zoomed in on some of the more notable duelists. Apparently, Kaiba had his crew record scenes of duels that where happening during the locator cards.

"Why are we watching this?" Malik asked as he leaned over the couch. He was munching on a cookie with a book about Jack the Ripper in his hands. He was amusing himself, since he didn't really saw the point in torturing Bakura anymore. He simply got bored of it. It wasn't because his Hikari had used sexual advances to consider him otherwise. "We were there. Even, Bakura was there."

"His choice," Yami said, not paying attention to the video that much. He was making a new deck on the couch. He didn't really care what Bakura decided to pick since this was what he planned to do today anyway. As long as it kept the little kid from messing around in the game store while Grandpa was at the museum, he was happy.

"Yummy! I see you," Bakura said, finally disturbing the odd sense of peace in the air. "And Ry! Big brother duels too?"

"Yeah he does," Yami said, looking up. The video had gotten to the finalist. "Actually…I don't remember him actually dueling. Most of the time it's the Spirit of the Ring."

"I know what you mean," Malik said, raising an eyebrow. "You never know, maybe he was a better duelist than Bakura. We all know that you lost to Yugi."

"Shut up," Yami said as he looked at the screen. He actually never took up the time to watch this video that Yugi's grandpa had bought, because Yami didn't see the point in viewing his old duels on a television screen. He noticed that there was some footage of Yugi sleeping. "Seto, that creep. I will never understand him."

"Hey," Malik said. "That kind of stuff is common in movies, besides Yugi looks like a baby panda when he's sleeping. I bet you watch him sleep all the time."

"I do not," Yami protested. Bakura ignored them both and continued to watch.

"Hey, Yummy, Mama…Who's that?" Bakura asked as he pointed at the older version of the Spirit of the Ring. Malik and Yami looked over at the little kid. How to explain this to a 3 year old?

"He's you," Yami said awkwardly.

"…Liar! I'm not that tall yet," Bakura said with a pout. "And he looks creepy."

Malik broke out laughing.

"Creepy?" Malik asked. "You find yourself creepy? I think you smiling like a little kid more creepy. It's actually mind numbing to see you smile like a little kid."

"Then, then, if that is me," Bakura said. "Is this DVD from the future?"

"No," Yami said, smiling a little. "It's a long time ago."

"Really?" Bakura said, squinting it the image. He was so confused and he looked at the two. "I don't want to watch anymore."

Malik smiled and turned off the annoying video. He sat down right next to Bakura and Yami, ruining the neat pile of cards for Yami.

"Malik!" Yami called out in frustration as he cleaned up the pile. He frowned as he needed to start all over now. He sighed and put the cards gently to the side. "Fine, what do you want to watch now?"

"A scary movie," Bakura said as he hopped in his seat repeatedly. "One with a lot of blood and zombies! Just like the one that Mama showed last time!"

Yami couldn't help, but to wonder if Malik was being a bad influence on Bakura, but then again if the little child was the Spirit of the Ring, he might actually enjoy this so called corruption. Malik cheered in happiness with Bakura's decision and popped in a DVD. 15 minutes into the movie, Yami decided to go get popcorn, because one of the bloody scenes were starting to make him sick in the stomach and he didn't need Bakura teasing him.

"Mama?" Bakura asked, looking over at the taller, tanner male. "What's a Soul Room?"

Malik looked at Bakura. Okay, that was random.

"Well a Soul Room is a room filled with secrets," Malik said, trying to simplify it so Bakura could understand. "It's a room where you keep your secrets."

"Does Mama have one?" Bakura asked, tilting his head.

"Yes, but you shouldn't see it," Malik asked. "It's really scary."

"Scarier than the movie?"

"Yes, scarier than the movie."

"Mine is scarier than the movie too," Bakura said as he looked back at the movie. He saw the girl's chest explode with blood. It was really a bad horror movie, but Malik found it funny.

"I think anyone's Soul Room would be scarier than this movie," Malik said with a laugh. He watched a couple get killed in the car and laughed loudly. "Ha, they are so stupid."

After a couple moments, Yami had come back. It wasn't until the movie was almost done did a small fact hit Malik in the face. The Egyptian eyes widened as he looked over at the small boy with snowy white hair. Wait, Bakura knew what was inside of his Soul Room?

"Wait, what you said before," Malik said to Bakura, interrupting the best part where the criminal was being revealed. Yami was about to tell Malik to save it for after the movie, but his curiosity had picked up that might actually wanted to hear what the other had to say once Malik mentioned the word Soul Room.

"You know what the inside of your Soul Room looked like?" Yami asked as he stared at the young boy, maybe he did remember things about his past now and he was keeping up an act. Bakura blinked in confusion and nodded towards them. Apparently the other didn't know what was so important about the little thing.

"When I'm sleeping, I have these nightmares about this place," Bakura tried to explain. "People being thrown into this huge pot, like when Ry is cooking stew, he throws in meat! Someone in there explained to me that it wasn't a dream. I was in my Soul Room so I asked Mama what a Soul Room is."

"Did you tell Ryou?" Malik asked. If Ryou knew about this then things would be easier. Malik had an idea on how to regain Bakura's memories without much effort on his part.

"No," Bakura said with a frown. "Ry asked me about my nightmares, but I didn't want to tell him."

Malik sighed, as Ryou wouldn't believe him unless Bakura told him himself. Malik just sighed and leaned into the couch. He watched as Yami was dumbfounded as Bakura continued to explain what he saw in his dream. At least, Malik was being entertained by the Pharaoh's reactions.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Mama! Yummy! Lookie!" Bakura shouted out.

The young little boy was waving around pieces of papers that he drew on. He brought a whole pile with him in his little bag. It was Ryou's bag that he used when he was in middle school. Honestly, Ryou didn't really expect to find it in the attic with the unpacked boxes. It was plain and blue, and a perfect size for the little Bakura.

"Hm? What is it?" Malik said as he took one of the papers.

"He worked on these all night," Ryou said with an exhausted expression. "I thought I went to sleep with him, but when I woke him up I saw him surrounded by little papers in the living room. He really wanted to show everyone what he drew."

"That's really cute," Yugi said as he kneeled near Bakura. "Can I see one?"

"Otay," Bakura answered cutely as he handed Yugi one of the many papers in his bag. He had to make sure there was a Yugi on it.

Malik raised an eyebrow as he didn't know that the Spirit of the Ring liked drawing. He knew that Ryou did have some sort of artistic talent. He looked down at the paper that he took from the child and noticed that it was him dueling Bakura, the grown up one. It looked really good for a children's drawing, which was until he noticed that there was a crudely drawn little Bakura gnawing on the big Bakura's head.

"…Why are you gnawing on…yourself?" Malik asked, not understanding this.

"Because he tried to kill Mama!" Bakura exclaimed. Ryou raised an eyebrow and looked at the picture that Malik was holding. There were too many for him to look through one by one when he was half asleep, cooking breakfast.

"What?" Ryou said, looking down at Bakura. He felt awkward that the little Bakura didn't like himself. It was strange to him, but it wasn't the only thing strange. Bakura wasn't supposed to know about this duel. Ryou didn't know much about it either, but Marik had told him. It wasn't recorded for the DVD of the Battle City Tournament, so that must have meant that there were some memories that Bakura remembered. "Where did you see this?"

"I saw in my dream!" Bakura shouted as he gave the other one he had been carrying around to Yami. "Lookie! Yummy is sleeping in that one! I drew that bubble like in that show Yummy showed me!"

Yami looked at the drawing, trying not to smile. He had to remember who this young boy was. He wasn't going to fall for Bakura's tricks. Even though Yami knew that the other seriously lost his memories, he was still convinced that the child would be the same vile villain that he came to know. It was just how the world needed to work.

"Does Mama and Yummy like my drawing?" Bakura asked.

"I like it," Malik said, holding the picture. "It's very ironic."

"Eye what?" Bakura asked, tilting his head.

"It's funny," Malik corrected himself, figuring out that the 3 year old didn't know that word. He looked at Yami with his cold face so that the other would grunt out that he liked his as well. Bakura smiled and looked pleased. He looked over at Yugi, who was very happy with his picture. It was a friendship picture with his friends. It included Marik and Ryou as well. The other had given Bakura a big hug. A picture fell out. There were even pictures of little figurines of everyone.

"What's this?" Yami asked, picking it up. He scanned the picture with his eyes and noticed that there was a mini him that looked pretty evil. He showed it to the others.

"Ry actually has a whole bunch of those! They were sitting around on the table!" Bakura explained as he smiled happily. "I liked them a lot."

Ryou blushed, not knowing that Bakura had found out his little hobby. With the extra free time, he didn't exactly watched TV or read Manga books. He worked on making little figurines. They were the kind that you would have for Monster World. There were two kinds of figurines, the regular ones that he'd make to look like cute version of his friends and the other one was one that he'd make for Monster World if he ever had the chance to invite his friends over from their busy schedule. He even made one of little Bakura, whenever he couldn't sleep.

"They're figurines for Monster World. I haven't played it for a while now," Ryou said. "I thought when we had time we could play a little."

"Monster World?" Marik asked, taking his time looking at the picture. "This me doesn't show off his midriff enough. It needs to show off my sexiness."

"They're supposed to be cute, not sexy," Ryou explained with a sigh. He smiled gently as Yugi looked at the picture and grinned wildly. He liked the idea of a new game. Even though he could be considered too old for these types of games, he still loved them with all of his heart. A new game would always spark his curiosity and he'd really get excited about playing them.

Monster World wasn't new, but he didn't actually played it before. He knew about it, but he didn't know that Ryou played it.

"Oh that would be great! I'll tell Joey and the others sometime," Yugi said. "Maybe even Seto, I see a little figurine for him. I'm sure he won't refuse, but then again, he's a bit obsessed with the idea of winning so that might ruin some of our moods."

"A little obsessed?" Yami asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Okay, buh-bye, Ry!" Bakura said as he gave Ryou the now traditional goodbye kiss on the cheek while the other two Yami had kissed their Hikaris. "Come back soon!"

The little boy soon made his way to the couch and sat in front of the TV. He pulled out the rest of the papers and put it on the table. He organized it for Yami and Malik to see. There were doodles of the Egyptian gods to things that Malik recognized as scenes he saw from horror movies.

"I drew a lot," Bakura said with a smile.

Malik he picked up one that sparked his interest, because of the intense use of red. This one was a familiar picture. It was of a royal army soldier of Egypt, slicing down a woman. Malik frowned as he knew right away where this came from. He showed it to Bakura.

"Why did you draw that?" Malik asked, curious.

"I saw it in my dream!" Bakura answered right away. "I don't like that one though. It's scary. It's scarier than Mama when he hides in the closet!"

Yami looked over at the picture and frowned as well. He had the strangest feeling that he knew those uniforms. Maybe they were bandits to him. He shook his head as he didn't really want to know what the child drew. It might have just been from this show that he watched or something similar.

"I don't understand," Malik said, frustrated. "He seems to remember all of his memories in his dreams and he remembers the events and why it happened. Why doesn't the old Bakura come back?"

"Maybe this isn't the Spirit of the Ring?" Yami asked. "It could be just a child that he's stuck on so he tortures the child in his sleep."

Malik shook his head as he looked at Bakura, who didn't seem very interested in their conversation. Bakura continued to draw a weird picture that was a vaguely a cat. It didn't really seem all that detailed. It seems that only the ones that he saw in real life or in the 'dreams', most likely memories, were to be able to be drawn in detail. Malik remembered from what Marik said when he was trying to get the other interested in art, that an artist sometimes put in their trauma into their work.

"Both you know and I know that the Spirit of the Ring should have gotten his own body, though it's not as sexy as mine or my Hikari's," Malik said as he thought. "Even with trauma that I have with me being well…me, I turned out pretty fine."

"Your point?" Yami asked. He was perfectly fine with a little midget body for the Spirit of the Ring. He had trouble with Malik assaulting him when Malik was first out in his own body. He didn't see why he would want to repeat that especially with Bakura. It seemed that the Spirit of the Ring would never just stay down. It was like trying to kill a cockroach with the powers to play a Shadow Game.

"Well he seems to remember everything now, but nothing has changed," Malik said, frustrated with how the Yami didn't seem to be even trying to piece together the pieces. "Remember, you didn't want to babysit him forever. You even said that before."

"Well, it isn't that bad," Yami said. "But you're right. Maybe we should look up that ritual again and see if we made any mistakes. It's possible we made mistakes with ourselves as well."

Malik nodded and went up to Yami's room to fetch the book. It was better than Yami going to get the book himself, leaving Bakura with Malik. Besides, Yami didn't have some dark, disturbing secret that he'd hide in his room. No, that's what a Soul Room is for.

* * *

Looking through the room, Malik found the book on the bed stand next to Yugi's bed. He flipped through the pages for the ritual. The book was dark and dusty. The words were written with blood. Normally this type of book that was owned by the Egyptians would be placed in a museum with special things preserving it, but the book was still new looking. Other than the dust, it was looked brand new. It must have been the magic that caused this to happen. Malik didn't see any other reason than it. It was the same with the Millennium Items. While he was flipping through it, there was a page that talked about Soul Rooms.

"This is interesting…" Malik said, scanning the pages. He noticed that it allowed access into a Soul Room without using the Millennium Key. He smirked as this could provide useful detail in either blackmailing someone or just for fun. The steps were simple as well. Marik looked at it and then he squinted. "Damn, it's useless unless the person is in a coma or something along those lines! Oh well."

Malik scowled and flipped through the pages. He found the rituals and read through the instructions. There was nothing wrong with how they prepared it. Then he noticed that was some small print. It would always be something to do with the small print.

"Side effects," Malik read out loud. He looked down. Maybe he needed glasses. "If the Spirit is not willingly brought into the body then…"

His eyes widened. He needed to show this to Yami or at least Marik, so he took the book with him downstairs to show the other. It's amazing how people can really miss those little details.

* * *

"Yummy, Yummy!" Bakura said, jumping on the couch. He showed a new picture of a crudely drawn kitty with Yami's hair. He was so proud of it, even though it didn't really match the quality of the others. Just when the Pharaoh turned his head to see the picture, Bakura tripped and hit his head on the table and laid down, knocked out on the floor with some blood seeping from the back of his head.

Yami's eyes widened. He shook the boy, but he would move. There were signs that he was breathing though. Oh, how was he going to explain the blood without having the Hikaris being upset at him? First thing first was to get Bakura awake and patch him up.

"What did you do?" Malik said as he looked at the two. "I leave for 2 minutes, Pharaoh! 2 minutes and you killed him! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Either Bakura kills you or I kill Bakura?"

Malik was about to laugh, but the grave look on Yami kind of signaled that something bad would happen to his sex life if he didn't do something about the little boy. He turned around the little Bakura to see the blood that was dying the silver locks red.

"How did it get like this?" Malik asked, touching the part where the blood was coming out from. "It's not a big cut, but it's bleeding a lot because it on his head."

"He hit his head on the table," Yami said. "He was jumping on the couch and then he just fell over and hit his head."

Malik sighed since he could feel that Marik was going to blame him. He went for the phone and called for an ambulance.

"What are you doing?" the Pharaoh asked, looking at Malik. "Are you going to call Bakura?"

"No!" Malik shouted. "The hospital. Just try and stop the bleeding. You know how to right?"

Yami just stared at him and Malik sighed. He shouldn't have asked the Pharaoh about something as trivial as that. Malik just picked up a towel and walked over to Bakura after finishing the call. He put the towel on the wound and applied some pressure.

"Isn't that my towel?" Yami asked, looked at what Malik was doing.

"Yeah, now shut up and go to the door to wait for the ambulance," Malik growled out. "So much for a calm day relaxing."

* * *

It was noon when Ryou received a call from Yami.

He was eating his lunch with Yugi and Marik in some new pizza place that opened up near the campus of their college so they decided to have something there. Ryou always packed his lunch though, so he was just sitting there with his friends in one of those outside tables, eating his sandwich.

"Huh? A phone call?" Ryou said as he heard his cell ring. He barely used his cell phone, but he'd usually get phone calls from either Marik or Yugi so who could be calling now? He looked at the number. "It's Yami."

"Oh put it on speaker," Yugi said with a smile. "I want to say something to him. I know Marik wants to tease Malik a little bit about our surprise for them."

"That would be fun," Marik said with a smile.

Ryou nodded to them. All three of them had planned something special for the break since Yami and Malik were doing such a good job babysitting Bakura. They decided to have a vacation in this hot spring area. Of course, they'll bring Bakura, but this kind of surprise was more fun with other people. They were going to buy the tickets to get there and make reservation tonight.

"Hello?" Ryou said into the phone.

"Bakura?" Yami asked. He seemed to be out of breath, but Ryou just assumed that it was because he was probably chasing around Bakura around the house. "Are you sitting down right now?"

"Yeah, what happened?" Ryou said, now worried. "Did Bakura do something bad?"

"Well, yes," Yami said, not knowing what to say. Ryou assumed that Bakura did something that a little child would do and get in trouble so he sighed deeply.

"I'll punish him at home, but what did he do?"

"I don't think you can punish him at home," Yami said. "He's in the hospital."

"What did Malik do?" Marik shouted out, but received some stares from people so he slouched down. He looked at the phone and didn't hear a reply from Yami. He however heard that the two Yamis were fighting over the phone.

"I didn't do anything," Malik said. He must have taken the phone from Yami when he heard the accusation. He didn't want to take the blame of something he didn't do. "I left the Pharaoh with him and came back to find that Bakura had hit his head on the table."

"It's indirectly your fault," Marik argued. "You should have been watching Bakura."

"It was for 2 fucking minutes! I didn't think that a lot of things would end up like this!" Malik protested. He had to quiet down, because a nurse was giving him problems.

"S-so…what are the chances of Bakura waking up?" Ryou asked, worried. He lost his appetite.

"Low," Malik answered. "But I might have a way to wake him up."

"A way?" Ryou asked. "What is it? One of those dark rituals?"

"Sort of."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"The side effects of the ritual, if the soul is not willingly brought into the artificial body," Malik read out loud since most of the company could not read the book. The group gathered around while Marik had finished "talking" with the nurses with his Millennium Rod. Next to Malik, Marik sat and looked over his shoulder at the book. "It could cause the host death or-"

"Wait, wait," Ryou said. "So this could have killed me? Marik you said it was safe!"

"Well, I couldn't read that small print," Marik said. "I thought it wasn't important."

"Not important? I could have died."

"Well you didn't."

"If you two girls are finished," Malik said, stopping Ryou from retorting back at Marik. He received two glares from the two that could have killed him if looks could kill, but Yugi pat the two on the back, telling them that Malik should read the rest of the book before they did anything to him since he was the only one that could. "Alright, now continuing where I left off...It could cause the host death or the soul to be broken into pieces and only a piece of it will be able to complete the transfer."

"Broken into pieces?" Yugi asked, tilting his head. "What does that mean?"

"It would be how I perform a mind crush," Yami explains to his partner in a way that he could understand. It has been years since he had to perform a mind crush though. He couldn't even remember the last time he had to perform a mind crush.

"So is it hopeless to get the old Bakura back?" Ryou asked, frowning. He looked at the little Bakura. Gently he took the back of his hand and caressed the pale cheek. This was not how he planned to spend the first day of his break with Bakura, waiting for him awaken in a hospital.

"Not really," Yami said. "A person can piece back together their soul even in a mind crushed state. Seto managed to do it, but it takes a while. We don't know how long it will take for his soul to become one again."

"It's been 3 years since the ritual," Ryou said. "What if he never becomes whole again?"

"There's a chance of that happening too," the Pharaoh said. His Hikari jabbed him in the ribs and mouthed to him that he wasn't helping at all. Ryou looked down at the little Bakura and took his little hand. He clenched it tightly.

"Well, it was working," Malik said. "There have been signs of him restoring his soul, but there's something that is holding him back. Honestly, I think that if I stabbed Ryou then he'd probably snap out of it-"

Marik gave him a sharp glare and he moved on.

"Anyway, I think it has to do with his Soul Room," Malik said. "I know we can't enter normally without the Millennium Key. Actually, that's not normally, is it? What is the normal way to invade someone's soul?"

"Get to the point," Yami stated.

"Oh right, the point. Well, the easiest way to wake Bakura up is to get himself back together by going into his Soul Room and we can go into his Soul Room with this ritual," Malik said as he showed them the page. "There's only one catch. The victim needs to be in a coma, and well Bakura is in one so we're going in."

"What? Into his Soul Room?" Ryou asked, shocked. After all this time away from Soul Rooms and black magic, it somehow ended up taking over Ryou's life again. He sighed. He liked occult things, but it seemed like he can't escape it now. "How many of us are going in?"

"Well it depends," Malik said as he looked at Ryou. "You know Bakura best. What is in his Soul Room?"

"I can't remember. It was too long ago," Ryou replied, trying to think. "Wait, I think I know what it is. It's nothing like what Yugi told me about Yami's Soul Room. It's not in an enclosed area."

Ryou closed his eyes as he tried to remember the Soul Room. Whenever he visits, it was a village. He remembered being dragged into the place against his will once and it led to a prison of sorts. A red coat would cloud his vision when Bakura took over his body. But, when he visits, without telling Bakura, it was a village filled with tan people with stark white hair. The tan wasn't the type that Ryou would get whenever he stayed out in the sun too long at the beach. There were no tan lines, just like Marik's tan. The sand in the area and the structures also hit him as familiar.

"It's Egypt," Ryou said. "The whole Soul Room is Egypt. The entrance is in…Kul Elna."

Looking down, Ryou clenched his hands. He looked at the others and stood firmly. He was going in. He knew that Bakura has been being haunted by something. Little Bakura was running away from it, but Ryou needed to know for himself. He needed to know more about his Yami counterpart.

"Then I have to go. Marik too, he will be useful," Malik said. "I don't know about the Pharaoh."

"Why not me?" Yami asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because if you haven't noticed, Bakura hates you," Malik said. "Not Ryou, the Spirit of the Ring. Just you being there might trigger some traps that could get us stuck in his Soul Room for all of eternity."

"Come on," Yugi said. "Let him go. He needs to take responsibility for what he's done."

"Well, then Ryou, you decide," Malik stated, crossing his arms as he prepared to set up the ritual. "Someone has to stay behind to ensure we don't get buried 6 feet into the ground while we're gone."

"I'll call Joey and the others," Yugi said. "They won't question what we're doing."

"In that case, we'll all go," Ryou said, as he had decided. He wasn't going to change his mind unless the others had doubts on going into Bakura's Soul Room. He looked at the others, and noticed that they had too much pride to run away from a challenge like this or in Marik's case, too curious to back down. "Alright, how do we do this ritual?"

* * *

After the ritual was made, the 5 people landed in the hallway that was between Ryou's Soul Room and Bakura's Soul Room. One door was a light blue that matched Ryou's jacket, but was sealed with chains and locks. When Yugi looked at Ryou, the other knew that he had to explain why they were there.

"They weren't originally there," Ryou said, tracing the metal of the chains. "But whenever Bakura would take over he'd either lock me in my Soul Room or in his prison that's in his Soul Room."

Yami looked angry, but Ryou smiled at him.

"Look, that was a long time ago," Ryou said. "Besides I figured out how to get by it and help you guys whenever Bakura is in control if I need to. Don't tell Bakura, okay?"

"So that means that the other door belongs to Bakura?" Marik asked as he touched the metal door that was bolted shut. The tan man tried to push open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Malik gently shoved him to the side and tried to open the door. "It's so heavy. How are we going to get in?"

Ryou looked at the door and opened the door easily. He looked at the others and blinked when they gave him strange looks.

"What?" Ryou asked. "It can only be opened by someone he trusts. Isn't that common for Soul Room."

"No, not really," Yugi said. "Actually pit falls are more likely in Soul Rooms."

The short duelist looked at his counterpart who looked away, blushing. Ryou shrugged as he looked at what was there on the other side. It was hard to see with all of the darkness. He squinted and words floated in front of them. No one could read it other than Malik and Marik.

"It says, if you choose to step inside, you will become part of the game," Marik said. "You will not be able to leave until the game is won."

Yami prepared his deck.

"He must be talking about a duel," Yami said. "Isn't that the game that he'd be dealing with? A shadow game?"

"Maybe," Marik said as he continued to read the words. Ryou looked into the darkness and saw that the darkness was of the night sky. He looked down to see sand dunes below.

"Guys, if we go in, then we'll fall," Ryou said. "I'm pretty sure that the words are telling us the truth that we won't be able to get out until the game is won. Whoever wants to turn back, go now."

Yugi shook his head and put his hand on Ryou's shoulder.

"I'm not going to run away. You're my friend too, Ryou," Yugi said. "So we'll go together."

Everyone else nodded, but Malik just pushed them into the room and jumped in after them. He didn't see the point with the friendship speeches. If they weren't going to run away then might as well rush forward. That's what he figured, but then everyone's vision went black.

* * *

Ryou landed on his butt in a pub. He could tell it was a pub, because the heavy stench of drinks and alcohol. He was behind a counter and he noticed that he was alone. Where were the others? He looked around and hid his head when he heard the sound of other people.

"Let me see that gold trinket around your neck," said a manly, rough voice. Ryou jumped and touched his Millennium Ring that was under his shirt. He looked down and saw that he wasn't in his comfortable everyday clothes. Well, this was rather comfortable, but he didn't have any pants on. He was wearing a giant shirt that covered his naughty parts.

"How about no," the other said. Ryou relaxed as he realized that nobody noticed him yet, but he felt like the voice was familiar. He didn't get the chance to come up with an image to match the voice as he heard a metallic sound. It was a sound of a sword being taken out.

"Then we'll take it off your dead body," the rough voice said. Ryou assumed that this person was one of those people that take what they wanted with force. He winced as he heard bodies be thrown at tables and screeches of pain filled the air.

"M-monster!" cried out the voice that was supposedly the one mugging the other and then a body was thrown over the counter and fell next to Ryou. He was about to scream when he saw how bloodied the body was, but he held it in and scooted away from the body. He trembled as he heard footsteps approaching the counter.

"I know there's someone behind there," the voice of the so-called monster called out. "Coward, show your face!"

Ryou slowly got up and put up his hands so that the other would see that he was no harm. He closed his eyes and waited for the blow that never came.

"Landlord, what are you doing here?"

"Huh?" Ryou said as he looked at the other. The man had a good amount of muscle on his tan body and a huge scar on his face. The hair was short and white, just like Ryou's and the eyes. The eyes belonged to Bakura. Ryou jumped up, suddenly knowing why the voice was so familiar. He hugged the taller man. "Bakura!"

"How did you get in here?" Bakura demanded. He looked at Ryou with a sharp glare, but he hugged the other. "How did you open the door?"

"Your door knew that I wouldn't bring and harm to you so it was easy to open," Ryou explained. "I came here with Yugi, Yami, Marik, and Malik."

"Wait? You brought that blasted Pharaoh into my Soul Room?" Bakura raised his voice, angry for an obvious reason. "How in the world did that seem like a good idea?"

"W-well, I needed all the help I could get," Ryou said. "Besides it was Malik's idea."

"Since when did you become friends with Malik? He stabbed you. You should be keeping away with a ten-foot stick at the very least."

"Well a lot of things happened since you were gone!" Ryou shouted out. Bakura took a step back for a minute, but then he grabbed Ryou's shirt. He lifted him up and pulled him over the counter.

"Were you guys the one that weakened me 3 years ago?" Bakura hissed out. "I was so close to winning and becoming free and then something cost me the victory. I was so close to actual freedom. Landlord, whatever you guys were trying to pull off. I finally got my strength back, and you better not get in my way!"

"We were trying to give you your own body," Ryou protested, choking slightly. "I told them to wait, but they didn't listen to me. What do mean by freedom?"

Bakura sighed and put him on the counter.

"The reason I couldn't just come out into my own body just yet 3 years ago was because I was in a middle of a game with Zorc," Bakura explained. "I found out that he takes over my soul the same way that I could take over your body. I wanted my revenge and all so I made a deal with him, but this wasn't part of the deal. So we made a bet that if I could beat him in a game then I will be set free from the contract."

Ryou nodded, barely understanding what he was saying. He looked at Bakura.

"So that's why you didn't talk with me for 4 years?" Ryou asked.

"Yes," Bakura said. "I didn't think that I could win against him in a Shadow Game. Only the Pharaoh could do that, but if I let **him** do that then I will be sealed away in the Millennium Ring."

"So you decided to do it by yourself," Ryou said, finally understanding. "What game is this?"

"Remember that game you used to play?"

"Monster world?"

"That's what we're playing," Bakura said. "And Zorc is the game master. Inside villages and certain places, we can move freely, but outside we have to roll dice to move."

"Just like Monster World," Ryou said softly. "Then does that mean we roll to attack as well?"

"Yes. I believe you know the rules," his counterpart replied.

"Where are the others? Normally everyone starts in the same place…"

"I know where that blasted Pharaoh is," Bakura said with a scowl. "He's in the middle of Zorc's lair. He has control over the Royal Palace. That midget should be with him as well."

"Then, what about Malik and Marik?" Ryou asked, looking around.

"They are either in the Palace with the others or in this town. We'll look for them," Bakura said as he looked away. "It would be easier with more people. I'm guessing you're a white mage like usual then."

"I don't know," Ryou said. "I guess."

"Then let's go," the thief said. "Use the Millennium Ring to find Malik and Marik."

"Why don't you do it?"

"I'm the only one with the sword and there are enemies everywhere," Bakura said with a glare. "Do you want to be stabbed through by a Royal Army man's blade? Or rather, do you want to feel what it is like to thrust a blade into another man's heart?"

"N-no, alright I get your point," Ryou said as he took out the Millennium Ring that was around his neck. It started to glow and point in the direction of what he wanted to find. It was giving a stronger reading than he expected. "It feels like they're right outside."

There was a lot of noise and then crashes coming from outside. Bakura looked outside and saw enemies chasing after two figures on the roof tops. He sighed as he figured out who the two hooded people were once he saw the Millennium Rod in one of their clutches.

"It's them," Bakura answered. "Look like it'll be a bloodbath tonight."

Ryou gulped and followed Bakura quickly as the other had climbed up to the top of the roof to fight with some men that Ryou figured was those Royal Army men since they were all dressed in uniform. The boy struggled with getting up to the rooftop and almost was hit by one of the men's sword, but Bakura managed to stab that man's arm, making him drop the sword to the ground.

"Hurry up and lead me towards them. I lost them when these guys distracted me," Bakura said as he continued to clash swords with them. Ryou nodded and followed the Millennium Ring to the edge of the Village. Bakura managed to get rid of all of the men and wiped his blade. "Oh those two don't know the rules."

Bakura stared at the two men that were struggling to get off of the space they were on. The dessert sand lit up and showed squared that you would normally see when playing Monster World.

"Stop wasting your energy," Bakura told them. They turned around to see Ryou and Bakura. Marik was about to hug Ryou, but he couldn't move from the square. Of course the square was pretty big, but Ryou was still technically in the village. "You stepped outside of the village. You need to roll a dice to move from that space."

"What?" Malik said. "What kind of fucking game is this? I thought it was going to be a Shadow Game. What are we playing?"

"Monster world," Ryou said.

"Oh great. I already hate this game," Malik said, crossing his arms. "Then again, I did get to stab people for no apparent reason."

"Malik, there was a reason," Marik said. "They attacked us with big swords!"

"Oh right, I didn't noticed."

"That's because you were too busy stabbing them with the Millennium Rod that you took from me!" Marik yelled.

"Stop fighting like an old married couple," Bakura said as he crossed his arm. He looked at the two. They were wearing normal Egyptian clothes so they didn't stand out that much. The Millennium Rod probably made those guards chase after them. He sighed in frustration. "Landlord, you explain the game to them."

"O-oh, okay," Ryou said as he got into the space.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: An author note because I got another inspiration from this Doujinshi. I should have mentioned it in the previous chapter.**

noselfpreservation. tumblr post/14667095378/ kimi-no-tame-ni-by-goendama

**Remove spaces to view. Warning! The Doujinshi isn't T rated like my fanfic.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything of the Yugioh franchise or of that Doujinshi.**

* * *

Chapter 8

"So that's Bakura?" Marik asked as he waited for Bakura to walk into the square. "His real form?"

"Yeah, apparently so," Ryou said as he looked at his taller counterpart. He remembered this man slightly. 4 years ago, Bakura asked him to make an arena for a Monster World game with the Pharaoh, but right before it was almost done, Bakura's voice had disappeared. The Spirit of the Ring looked at Ryou, silently telling him to explain how to play the game. Though if he voiced it out loud, he might have added idiot to it, at least that was what Ryou was feeling.

_That is what I mean Landlord._

Ryou jumped at the sudden sound of Bakura's voice in his head. He had forgotten that they would have a Mind link while they were in his Soul Room, because Bakura's voice was no longer blocked by the barrier of the game now that Ryou was in the game.

"O-okay, here's how you play the game," Ryou said. "Inside of the villages or certain areas we can move around freely, but outside we're placed onto spaces. We roll dice to determine how far away from the current space we can go."

Two glowing dice had fell from thin air into Ryou's hand. One was blue and the other was red. They ranged from 0-9. He looked at Bakura to check if the colors matched up with his usual dice. Bakura nodded.

"That's what it's normally done in a Monster World game," Bakura said. "The reason why Malik didn't manage to kill all of those Royal Soldiers was, because his level is too low to do any real damage. They are fairly weak though."

"Don't insult me like that," Malik growled out.

"Well, it's the truth," Bakura said. "You're level 1 and I'm level 25 right now. I maxed out my level already, but Zorc has the Palace guarded by the Egyptian God cards. Without my Diabound, I can't exactly charge in by myself. Once my Landlord levels up and brings my Diabound back from the grave then I will attack Zorc once again."

"Is there anything else that I don't know about?" Marik asked. "Who's Zorc?"

"Zorc is the being that wants the Millennium items to revive himself so he can destroy the world," Bakura said. "It's a very long story. Just think of this as a game where we have to defeat the final boss. His lair is the Royal Palace. There are also modifications to the game that my Landlord doesn't know about."

There was a light that surrounded Ryou and the others and words appeared on the walls of the space. Ryou couldn't read it, but he didn't have to with the others around him.

"Oh this is one right now. We have to choose a captain to roll the dice for us," Bakura explained. "Since we've been on the same block without attacking each other, the game recognizes us as a party. So we'll be moving together as a team. I say Landlord should be captain."

"Why him?" Malik asked.

"Yeah, why me?" Ryou asked, looking at the dice. It was true that he had more experience with this game than Malik or Marik, but he hadn't played for years. He recognized the place a little, because he made a model of Egypt for Bakura, but he didn't know it as well as the others.

"It's because you're a White Wizard," Bakura said. "You don't have to be close to the enemies and besides, you need to roll the dice anyway for your magic. We need you to roll for critical hits and super critical hits. You also need to use the Millennium Ring to find the place we have to go. We'd have to protect you either way."

Ryou nodded as it made sense.

"I don't have anything to complain about," Marik said. "Ryou, you roll. This game is confusing."

"Well, we can attack any monster that comes into our space freely," Bakura said. "But there are times where we'll need Ryou to roll our attack to do damage to the monster. Like if they are a long range attacker and we're on a different space than the monster. But before we continue tell Marik and Malik what job they are playing as."

Ryou looked at the two and noticed that the wall fell down as he was recognized as the leader. He saw that the classes, along with their hit points were visible to his eyes now. He looked at Marik.

"He's a beast tamer," Ryou said and then looked at Malik. "Malik is a Warrior."

"What does a beast tamer mean?" Marik asked, crossing his arms.

"There's a chance of you changing the monster to our side," Ryou explained. "It's useful, because then we can turn the monsters against each other."

"Ha! Sounds like what I tried to do with Yugi and his friends in the Battle City tournament."

"That's useful," Bakura said with a smile. "Marik can turn the enemies to our side, if we wanted. It makes sense since he's the owner of the Millennium Rod. It won't work on the Egyptian gods though. I tried. Malik hand him the Millennium Rod. I have a feeling he'll need it more than you do."

"But I don't have anything else to stab people," Malik whined, but stopped as soon as Bakura handed him a sword. A sword that he had took from a soldier's hand. "I like this better."

"I was a thief in my ancient life," Bakura said. "So obviously I'm a thief now. Landlord, there's another factor that you have to know. In this game, there are two kinds of monsters. The generic ones like you saw and the other one is called Ka. Diabound is my Ka. It can take the ability of another Ka that he defeats."

"Do we have a Ka yet?" Ryou asked.

"No, but you might be able to get one when you level up to a certain level," Bakura said. "Marik can't take control of a Ka so don't bother to roll the dice to try to control one. It's better when I get Diabound back for me to devour the Ka."

Ryou nodded and looked at the dice in his hands.

"Where are we heading?" Ryou asked. "It doesn't matter?"

"Not currently," Bakura said. "But I suggest we go to a village nearby to get a meal and information about the Pharaoh and the midget."

"Okay," Ryou said as he used the Millennium ring to guide them in the right direction. He tossed the dice and expected them to land in the sand, but they stopped in mid air. They continued to spin until they both landed on an 8. "So 16 spaces we can move."

They four travelled in the direction that the ring told them to. When they arrived to the 16th space, Bakura told him to roll again to see if they encountered a monster. If he rolled below a 60, a monster would appear. The blue dice rolled into a 5 and the red into a 9. Ryou rolled a 59. So close!

"This is actually good," Bakura said as he stabbed the monster through with his sword. Malik finished the monster off by cutting off the monster's head. "This will help you guys level up. Did they level up?"

"Only Malik did," Ryou answered. Bakura sighed. This was going to be a long game.

* * *

"Where am I?" Yugi said as he looked around, rubbing his bum. He got up and called for the others. He had a really bad feeling about this. He closed his eyes, hoping he would feel the presence of the Pharaoh. Luckily, the other was nearby.

"Yami," Yugi said soft as he ran in that direction. He arrived in a place that he could easily recognize as a throne room. He looked up and saw his partner on the throne with a very good looking tan. He was about to run to hug the other, but then a Seto look-a-like had stopped him.

"Who are you?" asked Priest Seto.

"Yugi Moto," Yugi said, confused. "Seto, what are you doing here?"

"How is it that you know my name?"

"We've been friends for years! Well, kind of," Yugi replied. "It's usually, I consider you as a friend and you brush me off."

"Yugi?" Yami called out. He seemed to be stuck on the fancy looking chair that he was sitting on. "You need to get away from here now!"

"Listen to the Pharaoh," Priest Seto said with a glare, but honestly it was just his normal Kaiba face that he had on. It wasn't very intimidating unless you didn't know him well enough. Yugi wasn't fazed as bit as he ran toward Yugi. Then a figure, that he thought to be his grandpa, came out. Only this man wasn't his grandpa at all. The aura seemed dark, not warm like the real old man's aura. Yugi wasn't fooled at all.

"Who are you?" he asked, looking at the old man.

A dark chuckle ran through the air.

"The Vessel of the Pharaoh," the old man said in a dark, booming voice. The form changed and melted into a pile of shadowy goo, before shifting into the true form. The eyes of Priest Seto and the other ones that were supposedly guarding Yami turned hollow and dark. "Welcome to my game."

"You didn't answer my question," Yugi said, taking a step back, but the doll-like Seto had managed to sneak behind him and bind him from escaping the place.

"My name is Zorc," said the dark spirit. "I am the true Spirit of the Ring and the owner of the Millennium Items. Now, hand me over your Millennium Puzzle. I shall be revived with your help since that traitor Bakura had other plans."

"Why would I ever betray my friends and help you?" Yugi shouted. Yami looked at him worried. "Let go of Yami!"

"Not until you give me the puzzle," Zorc said as he opened his hand. "Unless you want this has been Pharaoh to lose his head. I bet that will be a sight to see. You'd be put into jail by Seto and the assassination of the Pharaoh will be put onto you. It would be your fault if you didn't comply anyway."

"Don't do it, partner!" Yami shouted out. Zorc took him by the spiky hair and growled out in annoyance.

"Shut up, foolish mortal."

Yugi looked at Yami, who was still shaking his head no. Yugi looked at the Millennium Puzzle. There was no way for Zorc to get the other items since they weren't in the game, so he saw no risk on his part, but he never been apart from the item. He needed to save Yami though.

"Unbind me, I can't give you the Puzzle unless you do at least that," Yugi said.

"Fine then," Zorc said as he ordered the puppet Priest Seto to unbind him. Yugi walked slowly over to Zorc and gave him the puzzle and while the other was relishing on receiving the Puzzle, Yugi had taken Yami's hand and pulled him away from the throne. They ran away from the room. Once, Zorc noticed he chuckled.

"You cannot escape disaster," he said as he formed into a copy of the Pharaoh. He sat on the throne and looked as his puppets regain the lights to their eyes. "What are you waiting for? Chase after them! One of them is an imposter and the other one is a foreigner! They should be put in a jail for trying to kill me!"

They looked at each other, confused, but nodded as they could not go against the Pharaoh's wishes. They chased after them, but Yugi managed to slip out of the palace with Yami. They hid in the alleyway while the soldiers passed by.

"You shouldn't have done that," Yami said, softly so that the guards couldn't hear him.

"I needed to save you," Yugi said. "You're more important to me than that Puzzle. No one wants to lose their other half, right?"

Yami smiled at his Hikari. He hugged him closely.

"I think a vaguely remember this part of town," Yami said as he looked around.

"Really?" Yugi said, smiling. He always wanted to know about Yami's past. The two walked through the alleyways and Yami knocked out some people to get them some disguises. "Look we can use their horses too."

"Has Marik been a bad influence on you?" Yami asked.

"No," Yugi said as he cutely swift his eyes.

* * *

They walked into the area and Bakura wiped off the blood on his blade. He looked around and saw that there were Royal Guards in the area. He pulled the others into an alleyway.

"Be quiet," Bakura said, looking around. "Come on. This place is familiar. We'll go into one of the empty houses and rest up a little."

He led the group to the window of an empty place and slipped in. He helped Ryou get in while the others didn't have many problems. When he was helping his landlord, he noticed that the shirt was the only actual clothing that he had on. He smirked at his Hikari.

"So, you're not wearing any pants?" Bakura asked.

"H-hey, my clothes changed into this," Ryou protested, blushing darkly. "It wasn't like I dressed like this on purpose."

"I know, but it's fun to poke fun at you," the other said as he sat down. He hid the window with his jacket and looked at the other. Malik had been wounded a couple times, but Ryou had healed the wound closed. That didn't mean that the other wouldn't be tired. Bakura peaked outside and saw that the sun was rising. It was better for them to lay low and rest then to travel in the hot sun when they were tired and easier to be spot by the enemy.

Marik didn't get any damage done onto him, but he was tired from all the walking. He laid on Malik's back while he was sitting. The other didn't seem to mind the weight of the other that much though.

"So, explain to me why Malik isn't the psycho that wants to basically maim and torture every living thing across his path," Bakura said as he crossed his arms. "Why is he so close to Marik and how did you get in here? Did you get your hands on the Millennium Key?"

"Um…" Ryou looked at the two that were suddenly making out. Even though they had claimed that they were tired, it didn't really stop them from swallowing each other's tongues. "Well, those two are dating so Malik put his desire for putting other people in pain at rest…for the most part. He didn't kill anyone yet. At least, no one that we can prove he killed."

Bakura chuckled, ignoring the glare that came from the psycho Egyptian.

"So, did you bring the Millennium Key?" Bakura asked, his eyes narrowing. "If you did that would have made Zorc stronger."

"No, we used a ritual," Ryou said, looking down from Bakura's eyes and finally noticing the missing limb that Bakura had. "Y-your arm. Let me-"

"Don't bother," the thief said. "It came off three years ago right in the middle of me stabbing my sword into Zorc's chest."

"So the part of your soul that went into little Bakura was your right arm?" Ryou asked. He looked at the bare shoulder in awe. It was smooth and strange. "Then we should find little Bakura!"

"Little Bakura?"

"O-oh," Ryou said, noticing that he didn't even mention the small 3 year old child until now. He looked outside. He hoped that the young child was okay. He wondered where the little version of Bakura could have gone in this large world.

"He's a short little version of you," Malik answered. "Only he was fluffier and happy-go-lucky like Yugi. Honestly, I liked him better than you."

Bakura sent a glare.

"He's a lot like you," Ryou said, getting a little comfortable with talking now. "He would call me Ry and Malik Mama."

Bakura looked like he would spit out blood. He covered his ears.

"I don't want to hear any more of that," Bakura said, slightly embarrassed.

"Awh, you're embarrassed that a little version of you would call me Mama and the Pharaoh Yummy?" Malik teased.

"But Malik, you were embarrassed about that too," Marik pointed out, but he hushed up when Malik gave him a signal that he didn't want him to mention this in front of Bakura. It was too late though, because Bakura heard about it. That didn't mean he was any less embarrassed about what that small part of his soul had done to ruin his image.

"I don't want to hear anymore about it," Bakura said. "Where do you think you can find the child?"

"I think…" Ryou said as he paused. He remembered that the baby Bakura would have nightmares about Kul Elna. It was possible he was there since Bakura did witness the death of his family in that place. "Kul Elna."

"There…" Bakura said, suddenly becoming uncomfortable. "Fine. We'll head there tonight. Get some rest."

The tall tan man got up.

"Where are you going?" Ryou asked.

"I don't need to sleep, Landlord," Bakura answered back. "We're still a party technically, even if I leave this room. I'm going to get us some experience so that you can revive Diabound. And I know what your Ka is. We'll need to level you up so that we can use it."

Ryou covered his chest.

"Oh, and maybe I'll get you new clothes, Landlord," Bakura added. "That is of course, if I can find a pair that's non-bloodied for you."

The Thief King's laugh echoed in Ryou's head as he watched the other leave.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8

When the Spirit of the Ring came back, there was blood spattered upon his face and a twisted grin upon his face. Ryou knew that the expression he wore was the one that told him that he had won in some game he was playing.

"I'm here, host," he said with a chuckle. "I couldn't find some clothes for you, because things got a bit…messy."

"I can see that," Ryou said as he looked into the window. The sun was setting so they needed to travel to Kul Elna now if they wanted to make it before sunrise. He crawled over to Malik and Marik who were sleeping ever so comfortably in the corner of the room. He gently shook the Hikari, knowing that Malik wouldn't be very pleased if Ryou were to wake him up in the middle of his sleep.

"Ngh?" Marik mumbled out some words that made no sense to Ryou and rolled over to look at the person that woke him up. "Ryou? Is it time to go already?"

"You would have gotten more rest if you two didn't keep each other up," Ryou said. "Wake up Malik."

The tan Egyptian kissed the taller softly and that made the other grumble. Soon Marik's waist was pulled in close to the other.

"Oh, so you want another round?" Malik asked as he opened his eyes. He grinned at his Hikari and kissed the other's neck.

"Hey," Bakura said, snapping the other back into reality. Malik growled in annoyance, but he got the hint and got onto his feet. He helped his other onto his feet as well. Bakura shook his head and looked at Ryou. "Give us a heading."

"Wait, don't you know where Kul Elna is?" Marik asked. "How can you not know where your birth place was?"

"I haven't been there for over 3000 years," Bakura hissed out. "And I haven't visited it once since I got stuck into this game for one reason. I said I wouldn't come back until my revenge is taken upon the Pharaoh."

The others fell quiet and Ryou looked down at his Millennium Ring. He held the object in his hands and it glowed. It pulled him in a direction that he knew was Kul Elna. The thing that he wanted most right now was little Bakura. He could almost hear the other cry out for help.

"Alright then," Bakura said. "All of you should be leveled enough to get to Kul Elna, hopefully."

"What's in Kul Elna?" Malik asked. "I thought you said that you haven't gone there."

"I didn't need to, because I know what's already there," Bakura said as he gazed into the distance. "You'll find out when we get there."

The others looked at each other, but they followed Bakura to the outskirts of the village. Before they took a step outside, Bakura took out pieces of bread for the others to eat. Probably things that he stole even though he probably had enough gold on his body to simply trade for the food. Ryou didn't complain since the people in this game were just dolls that were playing a role in the game and he was hungry. He ate his share quickly and noticed when he looked at the others and himself that they managed to gain a lot of levels while they were sleeping, more than they did when they were awake. What did Bakura do?

Ryou looked at the other, who he barely recognize under the muscles and the tan. He thought about all of the things he didn't know about the other even though they had been living in the same body for the longest time. They were never really close. Even Marik and Malik knew each other better than Ryou did of the Spirit of the Ring. When Ryou remembered how drenched in blood Bakura was when he arrived into the room, he decided that he was better off not knowing what the other had done to get their level up.

He moved over to Bakura and healed what little wounds he had on his body. The spirit looked at him in shock, for he didn't think that the other would do such a thing for him. But his face slowly fell as he remembered that Ryou had changed a lot since Bakura had last saw him.

"Thanks," Bakura said, awkwardly. "Now that we have eaten, tell me the progress. Only you can see it since you're the leader."

"Well Malik attack is almost maxed out and Marik seems strong enough to have more than 10 of the royal guards to our side if we needed them to be," Ryou said, looking at the other two. "You leveled up once and I…I think I can revive Diabound if I roll a super critical."

"Good," Bakura said. "Then after we pick up the brat, we're heading to Diabound's resting place."

"How does a Ka die?" Ryou asked.

"It really didn't die. After I managed to get the Millennium Ring away from the false Pharaoh's magician, the stupid apprentice of the man managed to seal away Diabound into the stone located near the city," Bakura growled out in annoyance.

"So you were beaten by a girl?" Malik asked, amused by the story.

"Shut up," Bakura said. "It was two against one."

"Excuses, excuses. That still didn't change that you were beaten by a girl."

"Malik, Bakura, we don't have time for this," Ryou said as he had already stepped on the space with Marik while they were arguing. "If you are going to have a lover's spat then walk and do it or we'll leave without you two."

It was an empty threat, but the two Yamis had grumbled out in annoyance as they walked onto the space. Ryou smiled along with Marik as they continued onto their game, but after a few turns their smile vanished with the wind. Nearby a light could be seen.

"Is the sun rising already?" Malik asked, squinting to see the thing that was glowing off in the distance. Bakura didn't answer him and had a sad expression upon his face. He looked away and Ryou knew what the light was right away.

"Malik," Ryou said. "The sun doesn't rise in that direction. That's Kul Elna, isn't it?"

"Yes," Bakura said as he formed a fist with his hand. Ryou reached over and held the other's hand gently. The spirit of the ring looked over at his other half and relaxed slightly. It was really hard to explain how, but the two were more calm when they were together, despite their history.

"Why is it still burning?" Malik asked. "There shouldn't be anyone left there, right?"

"This was my last memory of the place," Bakura answered. "And this is my Soul Room so it eternally burning. It's kind of like hell."

He gave a soft chuckle and watched as Ryou rolled the dice.

"Just enough to get there," Bakura said. "Okay, let's go."

The four walked there. Well, actually it was more like 3 since Marik was too tired to walk and had Malik give him a piggy back ride. Ryou found it funny how the other actually caved in and gave his Hikari a lift. Bakura only shook his head and wondered how he ever considered Marik a partner.

When they got there, Malik dropped Marik into the sand as he saw a little figure running away from a group of soldiers. He knew that the little fluff ball was the little Bakura that he had to take care of with Yami. It was hard to forget the little boy when he drew a mustache on the Pharaoh's face with him.

"Hey! Why did you drop me?" Marik complained as he brushed off the sand off his body. He looked over and saw the soldiers. "There's soldiers in there."

"Do you think we can convert them to our side?" Ryou asked. "Then Malik doesn't have to carry you around everywhere."

Bakura growled in annoyance. He didn't expect the guards to be here in the burning ruins of Kul Elna. He didn't hear Ryou's proposition as he charged ahead to murder those men that walked around the place like they owned it. He brought his sword and cut off limbs of the soldiers. Not wanting Bakura to get all the fun, or let the other accidentally kill the little fluffy ball in his blind rage, Malik had joined his side.

Ryou sighed at the two that had plunged right into the battle field without a proper plan and noticed that the little Bakura had ran into a burning building. Pulling Marik with him, Ryou had dashed into the building. Marik wanted to get out, because he saw the flames, but the other wouldn't let him as they found the short white haired boy hiding in a corner.

"Bakura," Ryou shouted out over the crackling of the flames. "It's me Ry! You don't have to be afraid anymore! I'm here, you're not alone!"

The other looked up at Ryou with huge eyes filled with tears. He ran over to Ryou and tackled him. Marik finally noticed the little boy after getting over the flames as they didn't seem to be growing any larger. They were just there. They still would have hurt if they had touched them, but they didn't seem to growing any bigger or smaller.

"Ry! I missed you," the small Bakura whined out. "You promised you wouldn't leave me alone!"

"Shh, I know," Ryou said as he hugged the other. "It took a little while to find you that's all. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course, Ry," the other whined.

"What are we going to call him since we can't really call two people Bakura, can we?" Marik asked, poking the young boy's cheeks yet again. "Maybe fluffy?"

"He's not a dog, Marik," Ryou said with a sigh. "He must have gotten enough of his memories to remember his real name, I guess. Do you remember?"

"Mhm!" the small boy said. "Akefia, my mommy used to call me that…before…"

"Shh…" Ryou said, knowing what the other had meant without needing the other to spelling it out for him. He run his fingers through the child's hair slowly, calming the small version of the Spirit of the Ring. Marik only stared at the boy.

"So he can say that name perfectly fine, but he can't say Marik?" the Egyptain asked.

"Actually he can say Yugi's name fine too," Ryou pointed out, noticing that the other doesn't really mention the midget that often. Marik was stuttering out about how the little boy just wanted to push his buttons and how evil the Spirit of the Ring was even when it was only a little child, but he gave up when the child looked at him with big, bright eyes.

"Where's Mama?" Akefia asked.

"Oh right!" Ryou said, remembering that the other two were fighting outside. They might need his healing. So he picked up the other, who seemed lighter than he did out in the real world. He ran with Marik out into the streets of the burning ruins to find that Bakura and Malik were already finished with most of the Royal Army men.

"Why are you here?" Bakura asked the last man that was breathing. He stepped on the torso of the man hard, almost crushing his ribs. "Did the Pharaoh sent you?"

The other coughed out blood. Ryou covered the young boy's eyes with one hand and continued to watch as the man spit blood to the side.

"Why should I ever tell you, Theif King?" asked the man.

Malik took this as the cue to jump into the torture session. He took the blade in his hand and cut off the pinky of the man. The other screamed out in pain and once he calmed down Malik had taken another finger.

"Look, we can keep on doing this until you die of blood loss," Malik said. "Or I can cut off a more painful spot."

The crazed Egyptian looked down at his victim as he stuck out his tongue to lick the blade of the sword. The evil glint in his eyes were enough to drive the man over the edge.

"Alright, I'll tell you!" screamed out the man. "The Pharaoh sent us to murder the imposter and the foreigner with hair that strangely look a lot like the Pharaoh's! We came to the burning village, following their footsteps, but then we found the little child with white hair! The Pharaoh also told us to kill him. We thought it would be easy, but the boy runs around like a demon!"

Bakura stabbed the man's head right through the forehead, before Malik could continue his torturing.

"Of course he runs around like a demon," Bakura said as he spat on the dead soldier. "That's the only thing he's good at."

"What did he mean by imposter?" Malik asked a he looked at Bakura who seemed to be caught up in the moment. He looked at Ryou and went over to him, because he saw the small boy. "You found the brat."

"Don't call him a brat," Ryou complained and hugged Akefia. "Also we're calling him Akefia, because it'll be confusing if we called him Bakura."

Bakura snapped his head over to his Host right away when he heard that name that he chose to discard when he took on the title Thief King. His eyes narrow when he saw the little child. He wanted to get his arm, back, but he didn't know how to so he left the boy alone for now.

"Akefia?" Bakura asked. "You need to grow up little kid. You know what happened in this village right? And who did it right?"

"Stop it, Bakura," Ryou said as he hugged the boy that was now trembling. "You don't have to do that to him. He didn't do anything."

Bakura glared at Ryou.

"You shouldn't even be protecting him," Bakura growled out. "He shouldn't be here at all or be using that name. Ugh, let's just find that blasted Pharaoh and his vessel."

"What? They're here?" Marik asked, looking around, but all he saw was flames that continued to burn.

"The soldier said that they headed this way. I doubt they left so soon. The imposter that the soldier mention was obviously the true Pharaoh and Zorc had sent them to hunt those two down," Bakura said as he looked around. He saw spirits concentrating in one point in the village. He knew what they were and led the others to the location right away.

There were a bunch of spirits that were attacking Yami. The other tried to get them away by flailing his arms, but they didn't really work. When Bakura came walking into the mess the spirit had backed off. Ryou didn't know if it was, because of his high level or because he was once a resident of this village. It was hard to tell.

"Spirit of the Ring," Yami said weakly. There were no wounds on him physically. "Get away from me."

"Not until I get my revenge," Bakura hissed out as he brought his sword up, ready to strike, when Yugi stepped in front of his Yami. "Get out of my way, the Pharaoh's vessel, or I'll cut you down too."

"Don't!" Ryou shouted out, hoping that his voice would get through the rage filled head of Bakura. Luckily, the other hand lowered his sword. He glared at the two and looked at the spirits that were threatening to attack yet again. The small boy in Ryou's arms trembled at the sight of the ghosts.

"They want their revenge," Akefia said softly. Ryou was able to hear him over the crackling of the flames. He looked at the spirits that lingered around them. He knew what the little boy had meant.

"Even if I don't kill you," Bakura said. "The souls of Kul Elna will engulf you into madness. They wanted the blood of your father, but I missed the chance when he died. I suppose, I'm still weak."

Ryou went over to Bakura and hugged him gently. He didn't really know what else to do. It just seemed right. The spirit stayed at bay and then left the area slowly. Yami looked up at them and he couldn't deny the existence of Kul Elna or the sins that his father's counsel had placed upon the government and of the royal line. These spirits were real. They weren't figments of the game. They existed in the Millennium Ring. Yugi hugged Yami, hoping that was enough to counsel him for now.

"They left…" Bakura said as he looked into the sky. "Maybe they pity you, Pharaoh."

He chuckled lightly, trying to be strong.

"Look, we're stuck here unless we destroy Zorc," Bakura told the two. "So we're on the same side for now. There's no room for protest. You're coming with us."

Yugi looked at Marik and Ryou in confusion. The others sighed and told him that they would explain the situation to him later. Right now, this wasn't the place to hold a conversation. Yami got up with the help of his Hikari and limped over to the edge of the village. Ryou noticed that he could now see what class the two were and what level.

"Hey, Yugi," Ryou said. "Now you're a part of our party. It's not exactly what we wanted but we are playing Monster World like we were going to during the spring break."

Yugi lightly laughed and looked at his Yami.

"Where are we going now?" Yugi asked.

"To the palace," Bakura answered. "We need to get Diabound out and challenge the Zorc to a battle."

"Wait, we just came from there," Yugi protested. "There's too many of them. Shouldn't we at least get some monsters along our side?"

"Well, I don't know," Bakura said, looking at Yami. "It depends on whether the Pharaoh can use his Ka."

"My what?" the Pharaoh asked.

"Summon Slifer, the Sky Dragon," Bakura growled out. "Or Obelisk? Or maybe even Ra."

The Pharaoh closed his eyes and then from the direction of the palace, a giant dragon flew over to the group. It was Slifer. He tried to do the same thing for the other ones, but he couldn't.

"Well, that means Zorc has those two," Bakura said. "Or you're too weak to summon them right now. Get on everyone."

Bakura took the first step as he threw Yami over his shoulder. He made his way to the Sky Dragon's head with his skill. For the others, the Pharaoh commanded Slifer to lower his head.

"Yes! No more walking," Marik cheered as he got on.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: School life is coming my way and I won't be able to update every other day or so. Don't think that I am about to just abandon my fanfictions, because of my classes. I will simply, not update as often. I think that a weekly update would be fine, but I make no promises as my schedule is very unstable. I think I will be able to perform this though since I typed usually during the night to help me get to sleep. Anyway, continue onto reading my fanfic as I consider what day to update on starting next week.**

**Also, thank you SerenePanic for your nickname of Akefia. I thought a public thank you was needed.**

* * *

Chapter 10

"Honestly, stop babying the child," Bakura said as he saw Ryou holding the little version of himself while the child was sleeping. He made his way over to his host while avoiding to fall off from Slifer's head as they were still flying. He didn't understand why it was taking so long to get to the city since they were flying, but he didn't really complained since it gave him time to rest from the blood shedding for a little while.

"No," Ryou said as he cuddled the little fluff ball. "He's a part of you. Shouldn't you be happy that he's happy? I mean, I never actually seen you happy."

"That's because I have no reason to be happy," Bakura said as he looked at the sand. "Shouldn't you go to sleep? You need some rest as well as the others do."

"No, it's fine," Ryou said as he looked at what Bakura was looking at. "Hey, this seems familiar."

"Really, how so? Is it because the sand dunes all look the same?" his Yami asked in a sarcastic tone, but once he noticed that there was the same dead monster that Bakura had saw about an hour ago. Were they going in circles? He held his Millennium Ring to find out if they were, but they were heading the correct way. "Strange, maybe we're imagining things."

"No, there's that monster again," Ryou said as he looked down at the sand. "Do you think we're stuck in some kind of loop? That wouldn't be good. Keeping Slifer out wears out Yami."

Bakura eyes widened as what Zorc was plotting was suddenly hitting him square in the face. They were in a trap. He woke up the sleeping Pharaoh and asked him to head in a different direction.

"I thought you knew where you were going," Yami grumbled as he did not like being woken up by the other. He didn't really like the idea of waking up at all by anyone. He was really exhausted and he noticed that the Egyptian god that they were on were also in a bad shape. Instead of turning, he landed Slifer down onto the sand.

"I do, you annoying Pharaoh," Bakura said as he looked at his Millennium Ring. "The Millennium Ring would not point in the wrong direction. We must be in one of Zorc's traps."

"For how long were we in this trap?" Yami asked as he looked at the Spirit of the Ring with a sleepy expression. He slowly lowered his eyelids, but he tried to wake himself up by slapping himself. It didn't change how tired he was, but it did earn him a chuckle from Bakura.

"If you think that slapping will wake you up, then I can help," Bakura suggested.

"This is no laughing matter," Yami said. "Why are we stuck?"

"Well there are multiple possibilities," the thief answered as he hopped down from the dragon. "I think I will confirm them myself. You catch some rest. I think the sun is about to rise though so I suggest you find some way to shield you and your friends from the heat. There's a limited amount of water left in the bag and if you catch a heat stroke then who will be able to command Slifer? Also I need you for my plan to defeat Zorc."

"I'm not some tool for you to manipulate, Spirit of the Ring," the Pharaoh said. "How exactly am I going to be helping you? If it wasn't for Yugi's naïve belief in you then I would leave you alone in the desert."

"I'm not going to trust my plan to you when you might go against it," Bakura said. "You don't trust me, so I won't trust you."

"What's stopping you from leaving us to rot here?" Yami said. "Maybe a monster will eat you and you never come back. I might have to tell everyone else that you mysteriously disappeared."

Ryou looked at the two and figured that Yami would really leave Bakura behind if he had the chance to. The Hikari couldn't allow that. Bakura was a vital to the whole point of coming here and Ryou wasn't just going to let the other leave his other half behind when he was actually trying to help everyone, even though he has his own personal agenda.

"I'm going with him," Ryou said.

"What? Bakura, you don't need to do that," Yami said as he looked at the other. Bakura joined in with him saying that he didn't need a little tag-a-long since it would slow him down. Ryou, however, shook his head as he wouldn't take no as an answer.

"No, I decided," Ryou said he jumped off from the head of the dragon. "Bakura is going to need some healing if he runs into trouble and I'll make sure he doesn't run off."

"What makes you so sure that he won't just kill you?" Yami asked as he looked at Ryou with wide eyes. Bakura only chuckled and jumped off. "Where do you think you're going, Spirit of the Ring?"

"I'm not going to kill my landlord," Bakura said. "He knows that I still need him. Shouldn't you leave that midget behind though, host?"

"No, he's coming with us," Ryou said. "I don't trust Yami and Malik with him anymore."

"So, wait. You let a homicidal maniac and a man, that has been pampered his whole life and probably has worse people skills than I do, take care of a 3 year old?" Bakura asked, raising an eyebrow. Ryou, however ignored him and started walking. He looked up at Yami and smirked. "Not that I'm insulting you or anything."

"That was definitely an insult," Yami said as he wanted to punch the snobby spirit, but he was too tired to jump down. His legs were already numb and asleep. He might as well get some rest too. He still didn't trust Bakura, but if Ryou was with him then maybe things won't end up being too bad.

Bakura walked after Ryou, who was out of sight already.

"Why are you walking so fast?" Bakura asked. "It's not you have an idea of how this trap works."

"Easy," Ryou said. "The first thing to check is if the reason we're trapped is to check the boundaries of the space. It could be that we're stuck, because I didn't actually roll my dice once. If a player breaks a rule in a table RPG, then it would be easy to bend physics around to trap the player, am I right?"

"W-well," Bakura stuttered out. "I don't think it would be that easy."

He never noticed how smart his host actually was, since he took up most of his time plotting on how to kill the Pharaoh and gain his revenge for his family and friends that died in Kul Elna. Maybe he could get to know his host on this journey. What was he thinking? Ryou would always be a pawn in his chess match, even if it was against Zorc, who he once thought of as an ally.

"Well, we might as well check," Ryou answered. "Though, I don't know how long it will take to reach this boundary-"

Ryou hit an invisible wall and touched the surface. The sudden stop had awakened the little Bakura in his arms. The short child looked up at Ryou with his big eyes.

"Where did everyone else go?" Akefia asked as he looked around. "Why we alone with the meanie pants?"

"Kefie," Ryou said, using a nickname for the young child as the name Akefia really bothered Bakura, though the other twitched at the sound of the nickname. Of course, Bakura could also be twitching, because Akefia kept calling him a 'meanie pants'. "The others are sleeping. We're with Bakura, because I'm helping him look for something."

"So Baku lost something?" Kefie asked as he looked around. "What are you trying to find?"

"I didn't lose anything," Bakura said. "Other than my arm, I still have everything. I'm looking for a way out."

"We're trapped?"

"Yes, we're trapped," Ryou answered the little boy. "Just think of being trapped in a closet, because Malik decided to put a chair in front of the door so he didn't have to play hide and seek."

"I hate it when Mama does that!" Akefia whined.

Ryou laughed and hugged the little boy close to his body.

"Come on, go back to sleep," Ryou said as he took out the dice.

The other shook his head as he wasn't sleepy at all. It couldn't be helped. Ryou just sighed in response along with a soft smile. He put Akefia onto the sandy ground and threw the dice. When the dice landed, he bent to pick them up and tried to walk through the boundary, but he couldn't go through.

"Alright, that wasn't it," Ryou muttered as he tried to think of another solution.

"I knew that it couldn't be that simply," Bakura said as he looked around. "It could be that there's a monster in this area that we have to defeat, or right now Zorc is moving and he is preparing for something evil."

"Normally you'd like it when something evil is being done," Ryou said.

"Yes, but not when it's being done against me."

"So, Ry has to fight bad guys?" Akefia asked as he made motions like he was punching the air with his little fists. "I want to fight with big brother."

Bakura stared at the child.

"You told the boy that you were his brother?" Bakura asked.

"Well, I couldn't tell him that I was him mummy!" Ryou retorted. "He was a lost boy and I had to take him in. We kind of grew close while you were gone."

"I see then."

"Anyway, Kefie," Ryou said as he bended down to get to the child's level. "I don't do the fighting, Bakura does, okay? Besides you're too small to be fighting. Leave the fighting to Bakura okay? He's really strong."

"But," Akefia looked at Bakura. "He lost to Yummy and I won against Yummy in a card game!"

"Yummy?" Bakura asked, confused about all these nicknames that the child used. He didn't understand why the child didn't just call those people by their names. It was much more simpler than calling them these random things. Then again, it was confusing when Yami and Yugi called Ryou, Bakura, and him the Spirit of the Ring, but old habits die hard he supposed.

"That's the Pharaoh," Ryou explained. "I know Bakura may have lost to Yami, but that doesn't mean that he's weak-"

"Wait," Bakura said, interrupting Ryou. "So this 3 year old version of me, beat a rival that I couldn't beat for a while now?"

"It's not that hard," Akefia said as he smiled. "But Ry is a better at the game than me."

"Wait, you are?" The Spirit of the Ring looked at Ryou with wide eyes. The other, however, merely shrugged and sighed.

"You never actually paid any attention to my dueling skills at all did you?" Ryou asked. "Then again, you were always hogging all of the games to yourself, Bakura. You didn't even let me duel once against Yami. The only time you let me appear in a duel was when I was injured and had me almost take the blow of Yami's final attack."

Bakura was about to protest, but when he thought about it, he never did let Ryou play. He didn't even question how Ryou got them onto Duelist Kingdom, even though Bakura did tell the other to get to the island, because he wanted to get the Millennium Eye and the Millennium Puzzle. He supposed that he had to be a decent duelist to be accepted, but he didn't actually pay any attention whenever he dueled, because he was usually in his soul room.

Ryou returned to the little Akefia, because the big Bakura was lost in thought. He tickled the younger boy to cheer him up about how he can't really help in the fighting.

"Do you hear something?" Bakura asked as he heard something that sounded familiar coming from the distance.

"A monster?" Ryou asked as he picked up Akefia just to be safe. He could throw dice with one hand and cast magic that way so the little boy wasn't that much trouble to take care of during battle. At least, that was what the boy hoped. "Wait, this sounds different compared to the generic monsters that we have been fighting before. This sounds like a duel monster."

"You're right," Bakura said as he paled slightly. He looked towards the sun rise and realized what was coming along with the sunlight. It was the Winged Dragon of Ra, except it looked different as it was under the control of Zorc. The shine of Ra was dimmed and gave an eerie glow of green. The gold was turned black and the eyes were white. It was here to kill Bakura once and for all.

Using the Millennium Ring must have made Zorc realize where they were and how to trap them. He looked down at the item and cursed out loud. He had forgotten that Zorc was able to track down him if he used his item, but not able to track down Ryou, because the evil being did not personally know the energy that Ryou gave out. Aura was a type of a signal and so knowing a person's energy signals was important when it came to tracking people down. That was all Bakura knew and he had just forgotten, because he became soft and relied on other people. However, this was no time to think about how stupid he was to use his Millennium Ring.

Bakura needed to get out of there. He grabbed Ryou and started to run towards where he had left Yami with the Slifer, but unfortunately the Egyptian God managed to land right in front of him.

"Do you think we have a chance?" Ryou asked, scared. Ra was larger than any opponent they had faced in this game so far. He knew that Bakura told him that fighting against a Ka would be pointless unless you had your own Ka to fight it, but Diabound was still stuck inside of a stone tablet.

"Not at all," Bakura said as he picked up his Hikari as the beast charged up an attack. He ran away from Ra's attack and tried to reach where Slifer was resting. This was what he feared.

Zorc had noticed that Slifer was missing from his control and stuck them in a continuous loop to tire out Slifer so that the Winged Dragon of Ra could defeat them and then Zorc would win once and for all. Bakura didn't like the idea of losing or the idea of dying so he had to come up with another idea as they ran.

"Baku! Run faster!" Akefia cried out, looking back at the monster. "It's catching up to us!"

"It won't," Bakura said. "Do you think you can slow it down, Landlord?"

Ryou nodded, blushing at being carried like this by his other half. He threw the dice and they vanished as they were moving too fast for it to physically appear on the ground. The numbers appeared in the air in front of them as they ran.

"A super critical," Ryou said as it landed on double zeros. He motioned his hand towards Ra and it appeared that the God was stopped for a moment, but in actuality it was moving in slow motion as Ryou had lowered the speed stat of the creature to the point that it would take a while for him to reach the speedy Bakura.

They managed to get back to Yami, but everyone was still asleep. Slifer actually was asleep as well. The blast from Ra didn't seem to have waked any of them from their peaceful slumber. Bakura needed to think of what to do. He couldn't rely on Slifer to defeat Ra. Even during normal conditions, they were almost equally tied. Even if Diabound was here and at full strength, it couldn't defeat Ra without a full potential Slifer by his side. That was Bakura's original plan.

He looked over in Ra's direction. It was true they had some time due to Ryou's help, but they couldn't escape. This was a trap that was well thought out. A Ka like the Egyptian gods would not be able to be defeated. A normal Ka would be hard to be killed by men alone. He looked at Marik and Yugi. Even if the two beast tamer were to work together, they wouldn't be able to get Ra onto their side.

"Looks like this is the end," Bakura said as he let Ryou down. "Landlord, I need to tell you something. All this time that I have shared your body, I grown to-"

"Bakura," Ryou said, interrupting the other.

"What? Couldn't you tell I was trying to say something meaningful?" Bakura asked, annoyed that his host had grown a backbone to talk back to him in the first place. Now the mood was ruined and could not be recovered.

"You do remember that I have a Ka right?" Ryou asked.

…

Of course! Why didn't Bakura see it before?


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: An update about the weekly update plan. I think Friday night, my time, will be an ideal solution for this fanfic and probably the others as I will have time on Fridays to type up plenty as long as my school doesn't pull a thing such as school on a Saturday. Yes, they did that for about 5 weeks, because of the snow days. It wasn't pleasant. Not many people want to do school on a Saturday.**

** This won't be in effect until next week Friday when I go to school so I might update several times this week and next week. Not making any promises.**

* * *

Chapter 11

"Right," Bakura said as he looked at his other half. "Concentrate and summon your Ka."

Ryou nodded, while Akefia was clinging to his leg. The boy was scared. What kind of boy wouldn't be scared about a giant bird god that almost blasted him into pieces? Still, Bakura wasn't happy with him and told him to suck it up. Ryou simply glared at him.

"Ngh! What's going on?" Malik asked as he looked at the two. "Are we there yet? Because if we are than the Royal city is a dump, if you ask me."

"No," Ryou said, sighing. "Just the Winged Dragon of Ra trying to eat all of us unless I get my Ka out, but I don't even know if I can summon it properly. This is the first time I tried something like this."

"What Winged Dragon of Ra?" the other asked, but was answered by a roar and the beast coming in their direction. "What the hell is wrong with it?"

"Zorc's style sense," Bakura answered. He looked over at Ryou that was trying to summon his Ka with no visual success. "Come on. You can do it."

"I'm trying!" Ryou replied. "This isn't exactly easy!"

"Try harder," Malik said as he saw Ra charging up for an attack. His partner, Marik, was still asleep somehow with all of the noise. He could have sworn he saw Yugi up, but he might have passed out at the sight of the beast. Malik looked at the beast that was once his ace in his deck. There was bright light so he winced in pain. He shut his eyes. He didn't think that this would be his end. He seriously thought that he would only die during a Shadow Game to the Pharaoh or something. Not that he was still trying to destroy the world or any-

"Wait, I'm not dead yet?" Malik asked. "Dying is sure taking forever."

He opened his eyes to see that Ryou had finally summoned his Ka. It wasn't any monster card that Malik was familiar with. He squinted and saw that it wasn't a monster card at all from duel monsters. It was the Change of Heart's image that appeared in front of Ryou.

"I knew that card would be your Ka," Bakura said as he saw the half angel, half demon fly towards Ra. It went into the god's body, turning it back into its normal shine. The monster stopped his attack and looked at Ryou as its new partner. "It's too bad you can only use it to control one monster at a time."

"But if I could do it to Obelisk then the fight would be too easy for your liking, wouldn't it?" Ryou asked as he yawned. He was tired. Summoning a Ka did take energy that he was not used to using. He was surprised that Yami could do it, but then again he did have to do it before when he was the Pharaoh of Egypt.

"Good point," Bakura said with a smile. Malik just stared at the two of them.

"Okay, so now Ra is on our side?" he asked. "This is really confusing. What have you two been doing when I was asleep? I have the strangest feeling that Fluffy just tried to say something meaningful."

"Fluffy?" Ryou asked, as Bakura twitched. The Spirit of the Ring did not like nicknames at all. Not only were they confusing to him, but they were also demeaning. "What is with you and Marik calling Bakura that? I told you he's not a puppy."

Malik shrugged.

"I don't know why Marik does it, but I do it to push around Bakura's buttons," Malik answered. "Can I control Ra?"

"You can't unless Ryou gives you permission," Bakura answered, slightly irked at the other. "And I won't let him do that."

"What? Why not?" Ryou asked. Bakura whispered into his ear and then the other understood why giving permission for Malik to control Ra was a bad idea. "Yeah, I agree with Bakura."

"Awh! Mama is sad now," Akefia childishly said. "Ry is so mean! Why don't you let Mama play with the big birdie?"

"Because then he'd use the birdie to scare people," Ryou said to the young boy so he'd understand. Kefie looked at him and imagined Malik having the Egyptian god in his control. He shivered and looked at Malik.

"Mama already scary enough!"

Malik looked at the other and sighed in frustration. He grumbled about how things weren't fair and how he wasn't going to try to scare people. He was going to maim them and cause mass destruction. That was totally different. His grumbling had awoken his Hikari from his beauty sleep.

"Okay, I'm still dreaming," Marik said as he looked at the Winged Dragon of Ra. "Wait, why isn't everyone naked?"

"I'm not even going to ask," Bakura said as he shook his head. "How are we going to get out of here? Any ideas Ryou?"

"Well…" Ryou said as he looked at the two monsters that were on their side. Two Egyptian gods were there. Their mere presence should be amazing. "Malik, can you wake up Yami and Yugi for me?"

Malik smiled devilishly as he went over to the Pharaoh. He took the Millennium Rod from Marik and unsheathed the blade that was hidden in the rod. He brought it up and suddenly tried to stab the Pharaoh, who caught it with his bare hands by the non-sharp part.

"Malik!" Yami said with his deep, booming voice. He glared at the other that almost killed him. "What was that for?"

"To wake you up," the other said with a twisted smile. He covered the blade and handed it back to his Hikari. Ryou simply sighed as he knew that he shouldn't really ask Malik to do anything for him that didn't require violence.

Yami jumped onto his feet and looked at the Winged Dragon of Ra that was now in front of him. The beast looked at him with a strange expression. He looked at Ryou and noticed how close it was to him.

"I'm guessing that Ra is under your control," Yami said as he got down.

"How did you know?" Ryou asked, but the other just shrugged.

"I just do," he said before to called Yugi's name to wake the other up. "I guess this means we're moving now right?"

"Yeah," Ryou said softly. "Actually we're still trapped, but I have an idea if you'll help me, Yami."

"Of course," the other said.

"Well, do you think that the blast from two Egyptian gods will be able to smash down the barrier around us?" Ryou asked as he looked at Ra and Slifer side by side. Bakura looked at him. That idea was a bit dangerous since the blast from those two, if they weren't strong enough to break through the barrier than they would cause a massive explosion within the space. It was true that was the best chance that had, but Bakura would normally think that something like that would be too risky since there was also a chance that the shots would cross, probably ending their lives.

"I think so," Yami said, not noticing the risks.

"But Pharaoh," Yugi said. "If we do that, there's a chance…"

"Alright," Bakura said. "I like your smidge better than you now, Pharaoh. At least he can see the risks in this kind of plan."

Malik only laughed. He saw the risks, but he didn't care. This type of gamble was enjoyable for him, but then again he wasn't ever a normal person. Ryou sighed and looked at Bakura.

"Look, we have to continue this game or end up in a coma in the real world and never wake again," Ryou said as he brought Ra to the barrier. Yami brought Slifer with him as he followed the other. Malik and Marik stayed on the dragon as they were not morning people. When everyone was there, Ryou touched the barrier to show the Pharaoh where it was.

"Okay, everyone take a step back," Yami ordered as he made a motion for Slifer to aim his attack. Ryou mimicked the other and the two duel monster shot out their most powerful attack at the barrier. The blast didn't rebound like Bakura had expected it to. The wall started to light up and crack. It broke apart and fell apart into pieces all around them.

"That actually works," Bakura said, gapping at the sight.

"What are you doing, Spirit of the Ring?" Yami asked as he smirked. "I thought we were in a hurry."

* * *

"Here it is," Bakura said as he stood in front of the giant stone tablet. It reminded Yugi of the giant stone tablets that were in the Pharaoh's soul room, except the image wasn't of a Dark Magician or a Blue Eyes white dragon. He touched the tablet with his hand and Bakura almost snapped at him, but the Spirit of the Ring saw the disapproving look of Ryou. "Back away from the tablet, before Diabound bursts out of the tablet and eat you, vessel."

Yugi stepped back and went to Yami's side as soon as he heard the other. Ryou took the dice in his hands and swallowed a lump in his throat. He was nervous. It was a miracle that he was able to roll a super critical when Ra was chasing after them. He didn't feel like he could do it again, but Kefie was confident. The little boy looked up at his guardian and smiled brightly when Ryou looked back down at him.

"Alright," Ryou said as he threw the dice.

"Stop you maggots," called out a voice. On a horse was Priest Seto, Yugi paled as he remembered what happened at the palace. The Priest was being fooled by Zorc and was only a doll being played in a game. He had to remind himself about that otherwise he'd be trying to convince Seto that they were not his enemy, though something like that couldn't possibly work on the real Kaiba anyway as the man was stubborn. "Get away from that stone."

"How about no?" Bakura said as he smirked evilly. "Why isn't it Priest Seto? Why don't you get help of that girl of yours?"

"Bah, Seto having a girl?" Yami asked, laughing. "That man is more likely to marry the Blue Eyes White Dragon or his money."

The other's face darkened considerably. He pointed the Millennium Rod at Bakura and growled out harshly. "You will not get away with this as long as I live."

"Then I'll just have to kill you then," Malik said with a smirk as he saw the Millennium Rod in the hands of the other. He grown tired of the sword. It was a nice weapon, but nothing like stabbing a few bodies with the Millennium Rod. Marik kept the Rod close to his body and Malik couldn't really steal it away from him every time there was a fight. Now, if he took this weird looking Kaiba's rod then everyone's happy. Well, except Priest Seto, but when was he ever happy?

Malik stood in between Priest Seto and the others. Bakura only shook his head at the other's behavior.

"What are you doing Thief King?" Seto asked. "Sending this man to do battle with me? Too afraid to face me yourself?"

"Not at all," Bakura replied. "He acted of his own will."

"A super critical," Ryou said as he looked at the tablet. The image of Diabound glowed and started to slip out of its prison in the cold stone. First, came out its head and then the snake's head. It arose from the stone. He glanced at Priest Seto, the eyes beaming with light.

"I-it's not possible," Priest Seto said as he backed up. He stared at the creature that arose from the stone. True, it wasn't the first time that a monster had risen from a stone carving, but he was sure that Mana had sealed the being away by sacrificing herself. He didn't have any doubt in the young apprentice's abilities. He backed up and looked at Ryou who did the magic.

He saw the white hair and noticed immediately that he must be alike with that strange woman. Bakura laughed, cheekily as he looked at the mighty Priest Seto. If the other was scared with just Diabound out, then imagine the surprise if he knew that Ryou had control over Ra and Yami had the control over Slifer. Oh, how Bakura just wished that the other had Obelisk. The sight of the battle would be one that he would relish in, especially since the Priest's own father was present that the massacre of Kul Elna.

"Tell me, Priest Seto," Bakura said with a haughty laugh. "You said that the Millennium Item can't be touched by such evil hands, but did you know the truth behind the making of the items? Of course, you don't. But why don't you ever ask Aknadin? He was there."

The other's eyes widened at the other's words.

While, Malik and several others in the party didn't understand why Bakura was verbally torturing the other man, Bakura found it completely necessary. It was a little thing called revenge. Even though he was working on the side of the Pharaoh, since they held a common enemy, does not mean that he won't torture a few dolls along the way. He needed to express his anger somehow or he's going to explode on Yami with all of his madness spilling out the Pharaoh's guts onto the floor. He could just feel it.

"You're trying to trick me with your words," the Priest accused as he stood firm on the stone floor. He wondered why Bakura didn't order an attack yet. He felt like he was being toyed with. No, he knew that he was being toyed with by the Thief King.

"The items are made to weigh the sin of the guilty," Bakura said as he shrugged into the air. "But you see, the Millennium Items are reacting to the emotions of the wielder. There must be something dark within all of us. You're just claiming that the darkness is a bad thing."

"It is!"

"Ah," the Spirit of the Ring looked over at Yami as if he was directly looking at him. "But darkness was used to make the Millennium Items. They were made from the very bodies of the residents of Kul Elna! People that the government of Egypt murdered, because they thought that no one would care if they were wiped off the face of the map."

Bakura glared at Priest Seto.

Ryou held Kefie that was clinging to his chest. He made no room to stop Bakura in his rant. He simply covered Akefia's ears from the harsh words. Ryou felt sorry for Yami. Even though, Bakura might be putting his hatred in the wrong place, Ryou knew that Yami would feel somewhat responsible. He knew that somehow, some way that the other would twist it to become his fault.

"You, of all people should know," Bakura said as he looked at him. "What the people will do to a person that is different from them. They will curse the unknown and claim that they are evil. My village was considered cursed, because of our white hair. Honestly, your father would have succeeded in wiping it off the map, if I didn't survive."

"You're spouting out nonsense!" Priest Seto shouted. Confused, he headed for the city.

"Was all of that really necessary?" Malik asked. "I didn't even get the chance to stab him."

"He's not worth your time," Bakura replied. "Besides, that Millennium Rod is a fake."

"How do you know that?"

"Zorc switched replicas with the real Millennium Items when I took the Millennium Ring," Bakura explained. "They are linked to the other Items outside of this Soul Room, which is why I needed to separate the pieces. Now, we're safe as long as they don't get the real Millennium Puzzle, because that's the only thing that couldn't be connected due to me putting part of my soul in it."

"You did what now?" Yami said.

"I put a piece of my soul in the Puzzle," Bakura answered. "Originally it was supposed to be used so I could find the 8th missing key to the ritual to summon Zorc locked away in your memories, but now I used it to make sure Zorc can't win."

"Then…um…" Yugi looked at Bakura, nervously. He laughed kind of brokenly. "It would be pretty bad if I gave the Puzzle to Zorc."

"Yes, it would be pretty bad," Bakura said looking at the midget. "You didn't do something as stupid as that, right?"

"I kind of did…"

* * *

**A/N: I think that this story might be ending soon. I'm not sure. I'm sorry if I made Seto a bit out of character. I don't have a firm grasp of his character yet. I felt that he should have some morality in this fanfiction. Also I think after this fanfic is finished, I might post up two new fanfics. One will be pretty humorous like this one started out, and the other I believe will be very serious. They both will star Bakura, because I enjoy writing his character. If you'd like to read them, let me know. Hopefully my Beta Reader will have free time to edit my fanfics once school starts.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: This is the first day of school for me for the year and a new chapter for you. My next story will have a beta reader as she came back from Vietnam. I know that I made grammar mistakes in all of my chapters, but I don't notice them until at the minimum of 2 weeks after I write them. I don't think you want to wait two weeks for every chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 12

"You did what?" Bakura said as he raised the stub where his right arm was. He was waving it around angrily at the short midget and reached for his sword that was on his waist. Yami moved to protect his counterpart with his arms out stretched. That, of course, wouldn't stop the Spirit of the Ring. The Pharaoh didn't understand that Bakura would gladly stab through Yami to get to the midget.

It was fortunate that Ryou figured that out and stepped in front of the two, causing his other half to hesitate. Bakura looked into the other's deep brown eyes and scowled in annoyance. He clenched the hilt of the sword in anger.

"Move out of the way now, Landlord," Bakura growled out darkly. He saw that the little boy that was a part of him moved to defend Ryou. Akefia looked at the other with a familiar fierceness.

"Don't hurt him!" Kefie shouted. Ryou tried to urge him out of the way, but the small boy was firmly standing his ground against the taller man.

"Look, kid," Bakura started out. "He won't be hurt if he moves out of the way."

"So you can hurt my friends?" Ryou asked. "I won't do that. Besides, Yugi might have a good reason for giving the Puzzle to Zorc. We're not going get anywhere if you kill them right now."

Bakura growled in annoyance and put away his weapon. He expected the other to move, but Ryou was smart. He knew that Bakura might have been tempted to stab the Pharaoh if Ryou were to let him.

"I did do it for a good reason," Yugi squeaked out. "I did it to save Yami. He was trapped on the throne, because of Zorc and he wouldn't be let go unless I gave him the Millennium Puzzle. I couldn't just leave him there and run for it!"

"Ugh," Bakura hit his head with his hand. "That sentimental feeling called love and friendship, am I right?"

He shook his head at the two as he took out his sword. Ryou jumped, feeling that Bakura had lost his patience with them and was ready to murder them, but found that the Spirit of the Ring was drawing something in the sand.

"Then, we'll just have to make sure that the Millennium Ring doesn't get into the hands of Zorc," Bakura said as he looked at them. This certainly shocked Ryou, but he couldn't help but to smile. Bakura was back to planning some evil plot. It was kind of refreshing to hear him go on about his plan. "So, look here Pharaoh, there's these entry ways into the city…"

* * *

Yami stood on top of Slifer's head with Ra next to him. He crossed his arms and tried to ignore the shouts that came from the citizens of the city. He was given a job to do. He had to buy time for his partner to get into the palace. He had to be distracting and stand over the city, showing off his Egyptian Gods with a cool confidence that might lure out the missing Egyptian God, Obelisk the tormentor. This was something that was practically made for him.

He grinned as the wind made his cape flowed dramatically. This was how to make an entrance. Another monster rose from the palace. It was Obelisk, just as Bakura had planned, but instead of the freaky face of Zorc, Yami found that he was staring at his own face.

"Stop pretending to be me!" Yami shouted out to the other.

"You're pretending to be me," Zorc said to keep up his false image in front of the dolls. He crossed his arms. Even though his appearance looked a lot like Yami's, his eyes were evil and manipulative. There was also a dark aura around him, but Yami doubt that the others could tell from this height. "You don't even know my name."

"Your name is Zorc Necrophilis!" Yami shouted out angrily.

"Not that, silly fake Pharaoh," Zorc said darkly. "You don't even remember your own birth name. Yami this, Yami that…Wake up, Princess! Your name isn't Yami."

There was no actual response from the other, only an animalistic growl of annoyance, before chaos happened in the city. While they were talking, Malik had managed to make his way into the city with brute force. Of course that was what the other was going to do, it fit his style. Malik was joined up with Marik, who was making the enemy fight each other. They were the best team when it came down to it.

"Really? Is this how Akefia plans to defeat me, with brute force?" Zorc said, looking down at the blood that was spilled down below. His lips formed an evil grin that matched Malik's psychotic smile. While his attention was focused on the fight below, Yami had ordered Ra to tackle Obelisk.

Obelisk tilted slightly back, but manages to regain its balance as he tried to punch the other in the face. However, because Zorc was still disoriented by the sudden attack, Obelisk didn't react in time. Ra was already soaring into the sky out of his reach. Zorc looked at Yami with anger that made the veins in his face bulge up. It looked like Yami had somehow combined with Malik. It wasn't a pleasant sight to behold.

"That wasn't exactly fair," the other growled out, his voice sounding more demonic.

"Why should I, when you don't fight fair," Yami said as he crossed his arms. Fair? Really? That was a laugh. From his experience, Yami knew that evil villains will do anything to win. Now with the world at stake, shouldn't it be more fair if he broke a couple rules? It's seemed to even the playing ground at the very least. He was happy that his partner wasn't there to see him now though. He knew that Yugi would find that this act was very shameful and give Yami that look.

"Interesting," Zorc said as he touched Obelisk. The blue skin of the beast had suddenly corroded to a black color. The eyes were shining brighter than ever, because there was a sense of malice behind them. "I hope that you're prepared. I plan to make you the sacrifice to my grand revival!"

* * *

"I think it's here somewhere," Yugi said softly to himself as he entered the Pharaoh's chambers. He managed to get into the palace safety as Malik and Marik had distracted the people that were supposed to guard the place. Truthfully, he didn't expect this plan to work, seeing how Bakura's plans would often fail against Yami. The short midget assumed that the only reason that the plans seem to be working was because Bakura was on their side now, even if it was only temporary.

There wasn't that odd about the room that Yugi could pick up. He needed to find the Puzzle, but he didn't know where Zorc would hide it. Bakura suggested that it was in a mold that the Millennium Items could fit in.

"He said it would be big," Yugi said, trying to remember the thief description of the stone, but they were so exact on how it looked that the little guy forgot all about it. How did Bakura know so much about it? Yugi decided that he shouldn't ask the other and sat down. He jumped up as he felt like he just sat on the Millennium Puzzle. The thing is he was. "…Oh I found it."

He saw the Millennium Items were pressed into the carvings of the stone. All of the items were there besides the Millennium Ring. Yugi tried to take out the Puzzle, but it was lodged in there tightly. He tugged harder and harder, but the thing wouldn't come out. It was like it had become one with the stone.

"What are you doing here?" a familiar voice said. Yugi sighed as he turned around. He already knew it was Priest Seto that was standing behind him with the fake Millennium Rod in his hand. "You're here to steal the Pharaoh's gold, aren't you? You thief!"

"No! I came for the Puzzle," Yugi said frantically. "I'm not here to steal any gold! The Puzzle belongs to me."

"It does not!"

"No! You don't understand, Seto! Zorc is trying to revive himself with the Millennium Items-"

"Who is this Zorc? You just making this up aren't you!" the other shouted. "You're just saying this to mess with my head like your friend the Thief King was trying to do, aren't you?!"

"Look, I don't know what he was talking about," Yugi said as he put his hands up to show that he meant no harm to the other. "I just know that if all of the Millennium Items are placed into this stone, Zorc will be revived. I don't understand why he said those things to you, or what purpose it gained, but I'm trying to help you, Seto!"

"That's a lie," Priest Seto shouted as showed what he was hiding behind his back. It was Akefia being held by the shirt, half choking on the hold. The little boy swung his legs frantically. Yugi instantly was shocked, because the boy was supposed to be with Ryou and the boy had the Millennium Ring! All this planning would be fruitless if the Ring was pressed into the stone.

"I w-wanted to help," Kefie choked out as he sobbed.

"Seto! Leave him out of this. He's only a child," Yugi shouted.

"I'll prove it by putting the Millennium Ring in that blasted stone that you're obsessed with," Priest Seto said as he walked closer to the other.

"Seto! No! Don't do something like that," Yugi shouted. He wanted to add it was a stupid idea, that was going to get humanity killed, but he knew that if he said that Seto would be irked by the claims and do it anyway. Kaiba took the Millennium Ring from Akefia and threw the kid to the side.

"No! Don't take that! That was given to me by Mama!" Akefia shouted as he ran over to the other even though he was hurt and bruised by the throw. He hit Priest Seto's legs as hard as he could, but honestly, it wasn't strong enough to hurt the other. "If you take it something bad will happen!"

"Shut up," Priest Seto said as he tossed the little boy to the side. Yugi tried to stop Seto, but he was like the Kaiba he knew out in the real world, stubborn and ready to do anything to prove that he was right. The other pressed the object into the stone and a bright light came from the stone, blinding everyone in the room.

* * *

"Where's Kefie?" Ryou asked his other half as he looked around. "I didn't see him since Yugi left."

"I don't know," Bakura said as he focused on the scene in front of him. He needed to put Diabound in the moment that Obelisk falls. It was a cheap way to make his Ka stronger, but it works out fine. He watched as the whole city was in chaos.

"You don't think he went into the Palace?!" Ryou asked, panicking. "Oh, no. The little boy is going to turn into a kebab without us."

"Why do you care so much about him?!" Bakura shouted at the other as he grabbed the other's shirt. He was getting pissed off at his light. He didn't like how he was constantly worrying about the little boy like he was actually his brother. It wasn't so much the fact that his Hikari was obsessed with another person. It was the fact that Akefia was practically him when he was fresh from the slaughter of his home. Seeing the boy pissed him off actually. He didn't like seeing how weak he was when he was younger.

"Because!" Ryou said, but never really finished the sentence. He looked away, trying to find some interesting thing to stare at other that the other's face.

"Why? You know, he's basically me," Bakura spat. "I put you through pain and torture. I put your friends in comas and laughed at your suffering. Why would you care about someone that did that to you, even if it was just the child version of him?"

Ryou clenched his hands and glared at Bakura. There was such fierceness in his eyes. Bakura wondered what happened in all those years that he was gone. The other grew a backbone in his absence. It was amusing.

"It's because he's you!" Ryou shouted. "True, you've been nothing but trouble to me and as an evil doer, it would have been better if you weren't in my life, but I missed you."

"What?" Bakura dropped the other. He didn't expect that from his mouth.

"I missed you, okay?! It didn't really hit me the first two years, but I started to realize that you took a lot of my life so when you were gone, I didn't have anything else to do with my free time," Ryou explained as he looked down at his hands. "I was alone. I was scared. Akefia came back into my life and just taking care of him made me feel a little less lonely."

"How were you lonely? Did you have Pharaoh and his friends? I heard that Marik is your new best friend too."

Bakura raised an eyebrow.

"You can be alone, even when you're surrounded by people," Ryou said looked down.

The Spirit of the Ring didn't know what to say to the other. It was the first time that anyone actually missed Bakura. It was usually the other way around since they died before he did. Somehow, Ryou depending on him made him a little happy on the inside. He felt that he saw his Landlord in a new light, or maybe he was finally going insane from millennium of being alone in the Ring.

"Landlord," Bakura said as he tried to say something to the other, but he couldn't find the right words. They just seemed the slip his mind even though he usually had something clever and witty to say. He tried to regain his train of thought by looking around and noticed that the fight between Zorc and the Pharaoh was progressing fast than he expected, or maybe time passed while he was distracted.

"We should go," Ryou said as he frowned. "I'm sure that if Kefie is probably with Malik or Yugi. He will be fine."

"I suppose," Bakura said. "Hide your Millennium Ring. I don't want Zorc to be targeting you the whole fight. That would be annoying."

Ryou nodded and tucked in the Millennium Ring. He shivered when the familiar feeling of the cool metal touching his bare chest. Bakura summoned Diabound and helped Ryou get on as he needed to keep an eye on his counterpart. He knew what would happen if the Millennium Ring would fall into Zorc's hands. The stone would light up so bright that it would swallow the land and then an eerie darkness will take place. Once a sacrifice was made, then Zorc would be able to exist out in the real world.

On Diabound, he made his way over to Obelisk. His Ka had taken a bite out of the Egyptian God and he was face to face with the fake Pharaoh.

"Hello, Zorc. It's pleasant to see you again," Bakura said with a glare to the other. It was a lot easier to hate him now that he had taken on the form of the Pharaoh. There was a lingering feeling of doubt when he last encountered him, but that was implanted into his mind because of the deal he originally had with Zorc. It was supposed to trick him and cause him to be an easy puppet for Zorc to control, but the other wouldn't allow something as that to happen.

"Bakura, it's not too late," Zorc said with a grin. "You can still join me and have your revenge with the Pharaoh. Look, he's right there. You could probably kill him or push him off Slifer and you'd have your revenge."

There was a pause.

Ryou looked at the other, hoping that there was some goodness in the other. No, he knew that were was goodness in the other. Akefia had proven that, but Ryou was worried that the other would be blinded by his rage and anger.

"I'm sorry, Zorc. I'm working with him to get what I want first," Bakura answered and Ryou sighed in relief. Yami also was relieved and he really thought that the other would betray him at the last minute.

"You're lying."

"Well, you're right. I'm actually not sorry at all," Bakura said as he unsheathed his sword and ran to stab through the chest of Zorc. He wasn't going to stab through the heart. That wouldn't make sense. Zorc had no heart.

Bakura grinned psychotically as he was so close. Nothing was going to stop him. Well, that was supposed to be what happened, but a bright light had came from the palace. It blinded him and he suddenly felt like he was falling.

"Bakura!"


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Yes, this is an early update. I can't really help it. I felt really bad that everyone was confused over how there were "two" Millennium Rings. Hopefully this chapter will clear it up for everyone. Perhaps it will confuse you even more! I don't know.**

**I think that this is the end to the whole Zorc Arc. I don't know if this is the end of the fanfic or not. I don't think it is, because I need some things to happen, but it wouldn't be bad to let this end in a few more chapters and work on my next fanfic.**

* * *

Chapter 13

"Bakura!" Ryou shouted out as he reached out to catch the other, but of course the distance was too great. Luckily, Ra, still being under the control of Ryou, lowered his head enough to catch the Thief King safely.

"Impossible," Bakura said as he looked at Zorc. "How did you get the Millennium Ring? Only, Landlord, because he had one when he came into my Soul Room and the Millennium Ring around my neck that is linked to Landlord's Millennium Ring should have been able to activate that light."

"You're right," Zorc said with a smile. "It's impossible for me to have gotten the Millennium Rings that way if you two are so far away from the stone, but Bakura, you should look down and see that the Millennium Ring you took from that magician is gone."

Bakura looked down at his bare chest and noticed that his Millennium Ring was indeed gone. When he looked up at Zorc, the other was gone along with Obelisk. He looked at Yami and Ryou for the answer, but the two were just as clueless as he was. He stood up onto his feet and looked at the Palace. The light originated there and the other Millennium Items were there as well.

"He must be in there," Bakura said.

"Great job there, Spirit of the Ring," Yami said with a scowl. He didn't lose. That just doesn't happen. That usually doesn't happen anyway. The only thing different with how he was going through things was that he was listening to Bakura, so it must be Bakura's fault. That was the only solution in his eyes. "He got your Millennium Ring."

"I was too busy making sure that he didn't get my host's Millennium Ring!"

"Stop fighting!" Ryou shouted before the other could continue their senseless argument. "Look, if he's going over to the Palace like Bakura says, then Yugi's in danger. Let's pick up Malik and Marik and go stop Zorc before it's too late."

The two looked at each other with very passionate glares. They turned away from each other with a clear sound that was awfully a lot like a "Hmph" and Ryou had to sigh. Those two were bickering like they were children. Honestly, after all these years, you'd think that the two would mature a little. It seemed that they only grew older, but didn't grow up. Ryou was starting to think that Akefia was much more mature than these too.

* * *

"Look what you did!" Yugi said as he got away from the stone. Little Kefie cling onto Yugi's leg and looked at the new figure that entered the room with huge eyes. The figure was the fake Pharaoh. It was the evil Zorc. Yugi mustered the most threatening face he could manage, but he still looked too childish to be threatening at all actually.

"Nice job, Priest Seto, "Zorc said with a grin. The corners of his mouth twisted to the point that they stretched beyond his face. "I thought you were useless, but I guess a doll can have a few uses."

"What are you saying?" Seto asked the other. He was so confused, but then again he did believe that the other was the Pharaoh. The sudden blatant arrogance from the other made him angry. All he did was put the Millennium Ring into the stone because he wanted to shut up Yugi. He didn't succeed in shutting up the plucky midget and now Zorc was talking down at him.

"Oh, it's nothing you have to worry about," Zorc replied as he morphed back into his true form. "All Millennium Items are here so you out lived your usefulness."

With those words, Priest Seto froze and turned into the stone. He fell to pieces as Zorc consider the other to be an eyesore. Even though that was indeed a death, since it was done by Zorc, it didn't revive him, much to the other's disappointment. Yugi forgot that he wasn't the same Seto that he came to know and was just a pawn in Zorc's plans. It was really tough to tell with the arrogance, but nonetheless, he was stuck in the room with a creature so vile and evil that threatened the balance of the world…yet again.

"Why does this keep happening to me?" Yugi said as he moved away from the other. There was nowhere to run from the other. Akefia was frozen in fear as he stood next to the stone. He tried to pull the Items from the stone, as if that would allow the dream to end and he would wake up right next to Ryou. Yugi frowned at the young boy.

"Now, the only thing I need is my sacrifice," Zorc said as he walked toward Yugi. "If you are willing to trade the Millennium Puzzle for someone like that one you call Yami, then perhaps he will kill his long adversary to save you."

* * *

"Okay, who gave that little midget my Millennium Ring?" Bakura asked, looking at the others as they made their way to the palace. It was too easy with all of the people turning into statues, revealing themselves as what they really were, pawns of the game. "That's the only way that Zorc could have gotten my Ring."

No one replied to him.

"Do you think that he killed Akefia?" Ryou asked, looking at the other. He needed to break the silence. He could feel the tension between the others and he knew that tension wasn't good considering that one was a homicidal psychopath, one was practically about to rip another apart, and well…Bakura was Bakura. Marik, however, did not notice the tension at all. Ryou was kind of jealous of him.

"No, I still feel him," Bakura said. He didn't really feel the other's presence, but rather he still felt like his arm was there. It was strange. He could feel that his arm was there even though it was clearly cut off. He found the Pharaoh's room and barged in. There was Zorc, standing there in front of him.

"Oh, Bakura, there you are," the other said in his demonic voice as he lifted up Yugi by the shirt. "Regret going against me? No matter what side you're on, you're always on the losing side."

"Put him down!" Yami demanded as soon as he saw his Hikari.

"Haha! Like you are in any position to making demands," Zorc said. "Though, perhaps…I won't kill the short boy if you do something for me."

Yugi grabbed Zorc's hand as he was choking. His face was turning blue as the oxygen failed to reach his lungs. He looked at his Yami with his eyes as wide as an animal in front of headlights. The Pharaoh clenched his hands into fists, annoyed with the fact that he had to obey some sort of command from an enemy to protect his other half. All he hoped was that it wasn't something stupid or insane.

"I want you to kill Bakura for me," Zorc said as if murdering someone was that easy. Truthfully, it was easier to murder someone than to keep someone alive if you think about it. "Or maybe Bakura, you could murder the Pharaoh. You'd get your revenge that you always been wanting."

"Hey, what about me?" Malik asked. "I'd love to murder a few people right now."

"Malik," Ryou said, frustrated with the other. "This is not the time for jokes. You know what happens if you kill in this room with all of the items together."

"But, I wasn't joking…"

Ryou shook his head at him and looked at Bakura and Yami. The two were looking at each other. The Hikari saw sparks fly in their glares. It was rather scary. He was afraid that one of them would actually murder each other and then Zorc would get the final laugh.

"Mama!" Akefia shouted as he hugged the other. "I did what you told me to do."

"What did you tell him to do, Malik?" Bakura hissed out the name in contempt for the other. "Did you give him the Millennium Ring?"

"Yes, yes I did!" Malik said with a smile.

"Malik! I thought you changed!" Marik shouted out, stepping back from the other. Everyone turned to look at him. It was like him in a sense. Malik did enjoy the idea of everyone suffering and the world exploding to fit his sadistic desires, but they actually did trust him. Why? Because, he was their friend! That's why!

"You bastard!" Yami shouted out as he got out a weapon, so did Bakura. He was so ready to stab right through the other's chest, but there was a sudden hesitation, because Zorc had distracted them with his laughter.

"I didn't expect this!" Zorc said with a laugh that filled the hallways of the Palace. "You helped me! I suppose you want something in return then. What do you want? Money? Power? Revenge?"

"What kind of an idiot would want any of that?" Malik asked, crossing his arms. "Especially since you're destroying the world? All I wanted was the look on your face."

"What?"

Malik had a grin that matched Zorc's previous one. He walked over to the stone and pulled out the Millennium Ring. The glowing had stopped the Ring had shattered into many pieces. Everyone stared at how the Millennium Item had just broken like that. It reminded them of how Odion's fake Millennium Rod had shattered into many pieces during the Battle City Tournament.

"Wait! That was a fake?" Yami asked.

"How? How did you do it?" Zorc asked. "You even fooled the stone."

"Well," Malik said as he rolled his eyes. "When Fluffy-"

"I'm not Fluffy," Bakura said with a growl.

"Fine, when Bakura had told me about how you couldn't connect the Soul Room's Puzzle with the real thing because of how he put his soul into the puzzle," Malik said. "And how he explained how the Millennium Items were created in the first place. I decided to make a fake and put in a bit of my soul in it. I thought it would fool the stone because I have a pretty messed up soul. I thought that you'd be the type to not be able to kill if you were taking on the illusion as the Pharaoh and Bakura explained to me that you couldn't be stabbed as the Pharaoh."

Bakura took his sword and stabbed through Zorc's chest. Yami, still not understanding what is going on, took his sword to stab Zorc while he was still distracted by Malik's long speech about how he did it. Zorc groaned out in pain and spit out a liquid that could only be described as his blood.

"So, we made a plan, without the Pharaoh and the others knowing," Malik continued, ignoring the fact that the other was coughing up the last of his life. "To make you believe you were winning. I am surprised that Bakura is such a great actor."

"Wait, you thought of this all by yourself?" Marik asked.

"Hmph, I was surprised as well," Bakura said with a growl. "Imagine if he put this much effort into killing the Pharaoh, where would we be now?"

"Actually, I didn't come up with this," Malik said. "Ryou did."

Ryou smiled sheepishly.

"Well…Bakura wouldn't have listened to me anyway," Ryou said.

"That still doesn't make sense why I didn't move out of the way," Zorc said with a cough. "I normally would have been out of here as soon as I felt that this was a trap."

"Oh, that?" Ryou said, as if it was simple to see what was happening. "I rolled a dice and slowed you down, just like I did with Ra. Since you didn't really gather all of the items into the stone, the game was still going on."

Bakura was still shocked at the other. He looked like a fish that was gasping for water.

"Don't look at me like that," Ryou said with a frown. "Monster World is my favorite game."

"That doesn't explain how you're able to come up with all of that!" Bakura said as he pulled out his sword. He let Zorc's body fall onto the floor and turned his back on him.

"I'm not stupid…"

"I think you are," Zorc said as he jumped back to life and dashed over to Ryou. He looked awkward with Yami's sword still lodged into his shoulder, but his wounds were healing. He had his hand around Ryou's neck and pulled the sword out of his shoulder. He took the blade and pointed it at Ryou. "I still have most of the Items. I'm still more powerful than a mortal! Now that I know all about the phony Millennium Ring, put the real Millennium Ring into the stone now, Bakura."

Bakura was about to say no, but he looked at Ryou. He chewed his lower lip, thinking about what to do. If Zorc had grabbed anyone else, he would say screw him, but this was his host.

"Bakura, don't do it," Ryou said, wincing as the blade was so close to breaking the skin and making him bleed.

"You really are pathetic, Akefia," Zorc said, finally using the other's real name. "You think that helping me would avenge your family. Sure, the Pharaoh's family had slaughtered yours. Sure, they wanted power. But who do you think offered them power? I did."

"What?!" Bakura said are he started to snarl at the other.

"I was the one that allowed that greedy man find the book of sacrifices. I made him believe that he was making sacrifices to Ra! How pathetic humans can be when they are desperate! He didn't know that he was making sacrifices to me! Probably, if he knew of the consequences, he would never allowed the slaughtering. How does it feel to have been helping the one that really killed your family all these years?"

"You bloody bastard!"

"Shut up," Zorc said. "You have nothing that will work against me now. I am invincible."

"There is…one way," Bakura said as he narrowed his eyes. "I can destroy the Millennium Ring."

"You can't! The Items are indestructible!"

"I can," Bakura said as he took out the Millennium Ring that was hiding in his coat. Zorc looked at Bakura with eyes that were filled with fear. He didn't know whether Bakura was bluffing or not. He then remembered that the original Ring was on Ryou and ripped off the top part of the shirt and grabbed the Ring.

"It's too late! I have the Ring! I am more powerful than ever!"

Bakura shook his head and then there was a wind that rushed into the room. It created a mini tornado that spun everyone in the room. Yugi was flailing his arms along with Marik. Malik, however, just seemed to be enjoying the whole thing like it was a ride at an amusement park.

The wind, however, was not the wind. It was the souls of Kul Elna. Yami looked at these souls with a new expression. He wondered what they had to go through and how their rage had caused them to not have shape of human beings anymore.

"What is going on?" Zorc shouted.

"Easy," Bakura said. "You live off the pain and the anger of Kul Elna for being slaughtered by the government that they used to trust in. You're basically a really bad Malik in different skin. So, the easiest way to destroy you is to get them to forgive and forget."

Zorc looked at Bakura and made a face.

"They wouldn't dare do that," Zorc said.

Bakura only shook at the other and smiled an all knowing smirk. Akefia looked so scared at the twisted faces of his relatives, but then he was comforted as they slowly took the form of actual human faces. They were kind.

"Too late, they forgive the Pharaoh," Bakura said as the spirits entered the Millennium Ring and turning it into dust. "They forgive the government. They even forgive that man that slaughtered them. Why?"

"Why would they do that?" Zorc said, becoming weaker as the spirits entered the other items one by one, destroying them.

"Because, they realize something," Bakura said as he smirked. "As I did as well. You told me earlier that you're the one responsible? Well, now they are directing all their anger towards you and we must get our revenge."

The wind slowly died down as there were fewer souls in the air to lift them into the air. Bakura landed on his feet while ones like Malik and Marik fell on their faces. Yugi landed on his ass, while Yami landed on his back. Akefia landed in Ryou's arms and cling onto what was left of Ryou's clothing. There was barely any cloth there anymore.

The only item left was the Millennium Puzzle, but Zorc was already a corpse that was gasping for his breath. He lost all his muscles and now he was all skin and bones. It took the last of his strength to get onto his feet and try to make his way to Bakura. The other simply stared at the once great and evil villain. Zorc fell and was reduce to ashes.

The next thing that everyone else knew was that they were in their beds. Yugi had told his friends to move their bodies to their homes while they were away in Bakura's soul room. Their adventure was over, but they had to wait until tomorrow to find out what happened to Kefie in the hospital.


	14. Chapter 14 part one

**Author Note: My internet is DEAD. I won't be able to view any reviews until my internet is back up. So how did I post up this chapter? I didn't. My beta reader did it for me, because she's a nice person. Everyone thank her, otherwise you wouldn't get your weekly update. That would be horrible for some of you.**

**I believe that this is the last chapter for A New Life. There most likely will be a sequel. I will post up an epilogue for this story when the sequel is up and running, so I suggest that you follow this story, because I don't know when I will start the sequel, because I have too many ideas to deal with right now.**

**Also this chapter is short, because well. There's nothing else to put in this story until the sequel.**

**That is all.**

* * *

Chapter 14

"Mornin'," Ryou said to no one in particular as he sat up in his bed and stretched. He looked around and found that he was in his room. He looked at the empty spot of his bed and remembered that Kefie was still in the hospital. It took a while before he remembered what happened in the Soul Room. He went through the day, relatively normal. He brushed his teeth and took a shower. He felt like he was forgetting something, but he didn't realize what it was until he got to the part of his morning where he would be drinking coffee to get himself awake.

He spat out the liquid all over the kitchen counter and groaned in frustration, as he needed to clean that up. After cleaning the mess, he ran out of the house toward Marik's place to find out if everyone came back to the real world.

Ryou knocked on the door, and Malik opened the door. He hugged Ryou tightly out of happiness, but he was violently crushing the other's spine.

"M-malik, that hurts," Ryou said.

"I know it does," the other replied with a grin.

"Malik, put him down," Marik said with a slight pout. He walked over to Ryou and helped him recover from the violent hugging. The tan man wasn't going to be happy if they had to go to the hospital for any reason other than seeing the smiling face of Akefia as he woke up. Having to get a friend to the doctor because his boyfriend had broken their ribs was not pleasant, especially when he had to come up with a logical reason to explain the accident to the doctor.

"Thanks," Ryou said. "So that whole thing wasn't a dream, right?"

"What thing?" Marik asked. Ryou looked at the other with a scared look, and the Egyptian laughed at him. "I'm kidding. I remember everything. What do you think happened to Bakura?"

"I don't know," he said with a frown. "The Millennium Ring is destroyed so maybe he died."

"That would be horrible!" Marik shouted out. "All that work would be for almost nothing."

"Didn't we go in for Akefia?" Malik asked as he looked at Marik. "You know, to wake the little midget up?"

"Yeah, but the plan was to unite their souls or something!"

"It's okay," Ryou said as he sighed deeply. He knew that it wasn't going to be a total happy ending for everyone. There had to be some losses when it came to this adventure. He looked and Marik and Malik and sighed deeply.

"Maybe he's walking around in his own body right now?" Marik suggested as he put a hand on Ryou's shoulder. "He could be stealing some cash from Kaiba right now. You don't know for sure until we go to the hospital and check on Akefia."

"Yeah, you're right," Ryou said. "I shouldn't assume the worst all the time."

"Wait, if he did get his own body," Malik said. "He might be trying to murder the Pharaoh right now."

"I thought he forgave him!"

"He could have been crossing his finger! Since when does Bakura forgive people?" Malik exclaimed. "He could just be doing it because he wants to! I don't know. You know him better than I do."

"I don't think he would do that," Ryou said with a slight pout. "Most likely he'd be stealing as much as he can without getting caught, or he's in the hospital naked, and they arrest him for flashing the nurses."

"Why did you come up with that idea?" Marik asked.

"Don't you remember? When Yami and Malik came out they weren't wearing anything?" Ryou asked. "I'm surprised that Kefie was even wearing anything when I found him! Then again, I don't know what the little guy has been through the past three years."

"Good point," Marik said. "Let's get the other two and go to the hospital right now."

* * *

As expected, Ryou found that the hospital was in disarray, but there was no naked Bakura running around, so he wondered what happened. He went into Akefia's room and found that the boy was replaced, not in body but in mind, with Bakura. The boy was trying to get out of the hospital through the window, but the nurses pulled him away and put him back in bed.

"Bakura?" Ryou asked.

"Yes, it's me, Host. I'm stuck in a 3 year old body," Bakura said with a scowl. His voice was high pitched, because the body he was in didn't hit puberty at all. Ryou's face fell a little when he saw that the other was indeed in Akefia's body. "Don't make that face. That boy is still in here."

The nurses looked confused and left once they made sure that Ryou would watch over the kid, and after having locked the windows tightly. Malik laughed out loud with Yami. The two found something in common, laughing at Bakura's situation.

"I'll still have the ability to murder the two of you," Bakura said with a growl. "Don't underestimate me."

"Yeah, right," Yami said as he rolled his eyes.

"We'd like to see you try," Malik challenged with a smirk.

"You two better sleep with your eyes open. I will get you."

The two laughed even louder. They couldn't take the little boy seriously. It was just funny seeing the other be in this kind of state right after seeing how he was in his past life. It was cute when a little three year old threatened them, even though Bakura was the type who'd get his revenge.

"Wait, you said Kefie is in there. Are you joking? Is he really in there?" Ryou asked, ignoring the two Yamis that were laughing their asses off. Eventually, a nurse came in and scolded them by pulling on their ears. "Prove it."

Suddenly the eyes turned from a sharp glare into the round, chocolate eyes that Ryou was used to seeing. The little boy jumped from the bed and hugged Ryou, or rather, tackled him. They would have fallen onto the floor if Yugi and Marik weren't there to support them.

"Ry! I missed you!" Akefia said. The change in voice was clear. He cried into Ryou's chest and the other smiled. He petted the white hair gently to calm the little one. "I missed you so much."

"So how are we going to separate them?" Yami asked as he rubbed his ear tenderly. The ear pulling really hurt, so he learned not to create too much chaos in the hospital. Malik, however, didn't really care.

"What do you mean how?" Bakura asked with a growl. He was still hugging Ryou, but everyone looked over the face. "Just do that ritual."

"Well, we can't," Marik explained. "We don't have the materials. It'll take at least another 2 years for us to get the materials, and we don't know what it'll do to a 3 year old. Besides, aren't you two part of the same soul?"

"So I'm stuck like this?" Bakura asked. His face fell. "Kefie, or so you call him, doesn't want to join with me. It seems that he became another identity all together."

"…So…he's like your son," Malik said.

Everyone looked at him.

"What?"

Bakura hit his head as he heard the little boy ask if he could call him dad now. This was going to be a long two years, but he looked at Ryou and how the other had smiled. It was a long time since he saw Ryou smile this way. Maybe things won't be so bad after all. It wasn't permanent.


	15. Chapter 14 part two

**A/N: So, this is officially the last chapter and the sequel is up tomorrow. It's called Holding On. Those who enjoyed this story should follow that if they want. I will be working on two stories at once, Millennium Asylum and Holding on, just advertising to my readers. I was going to work on a Deathshipping, but right now I think two stories is enough. Also, I got this strange idea of making a prequel to this story about how Malik got together with Marik and Yugi got together with Yami…But nothing is clear at the moment.**

**Also, all of my stories shall now go through my Beta before reaching the website. Less grammar mistakes! Woot! Well, unless she goes on vacation or is swamped with work.**

* * *

Chapter 14 part two

"What are we going to do with him?" Malik asked as he poked the current body that held both Akefia and Bakura. Marik was helping him by poking the other side. They really couldn't help it. The little boy's cheeks were very squishy. Kefie squirmed and wiggled around in the couch of Yugi's house.

"I don't know," Ryou said with a sigh. "I suppose I'll need to get a job and send him to school."

"To school?!" Bakura exclaimed. "No! I had enough of that when I was stuck in your body."

"Couldn't you just go into your Soul Room?" Yami asked as he raised an eyebrow at the two Egyptians that were continuing their poking spree, only the little innocent boy was replaced with the ex-Spirit of the Ring. Bakura was quite pissed off about the whole thing to begin with. Yami found enjoyment in this and started to poke him as well.

"Stop it! That's irritating!" Bakura replied as he crossed his arms. "And no, I can't seem to access my Soul Room right now. It could be because of how the Millennium Ring was destroyed, or something similar to that."

"Then where do you go when Akefia is out?" Ryou asked, and was greeted by an eye twitch from Bakura, so he corrected himself before the other could yell. "Kefie. Where or what do you do when Kefie is out?"

"I'm still there," Bakura said as he pouted. He would never admit that he was pouting though. "It's more like I'm a ghost outside of the body, and I can't really communicate with everyone unless I take over. Does that make sense?"

"Oh, I understand what you mean," Yugi said as he smiled. "It's just like what the Pharaoh did when we were dueling. I'd feel the same thing. Didn't you two feel the same thing?"

He looked over at Marik and Ryou, who stared at him with strange looks. They both shook their heads at the other. Ryou looked at the other direction, not wanting to explain what happened whenever Bakura took over his body. Marik, however, was fine with explaining what happened whenever Malik took over his body.

"You see, the reason why I never had that experience, Yugi," Marik started out and paused to think about how to put what he was trying to say in simple terms. "Malik is just a greedy person that wanted as much screen time as he could get. That's why he stuffed me down so I couldn't come out and take away his screen time with my flawless, sexy personality."

"What screen time?" Yugi asked as he tilted his head. It was actually more amusing than it was cute to see the other tilt his head, as his hair would do a little bounce. "Were we on TV the whole time or something?"

"It's a figure of speech!" Marik replied with a pout. He wanted to help Yugi understand that he probably had the nicest counterpart who was willing to share a body, but he noticed now that he only confused the other.

"Well, actually," Yami said as he took out a DVD that Kaiba Corps made of the Battle City Tournament for the home TV sets. He actually watched it with Kefie and Malik in the game store. He still remembered that there was footage of the contestants sleeping, even though he found that creepy. "The whole thing was taped and live."

"So there was screen time?" Yugi asked as he looked at the DVD. "Oh, I saw that. I just forgot about it. It was a really long time ago, you know?"

"Yeah," Malik said, laughing. "Remember, that time where we were dueling on the blimp and you lost?"

"Don't bring that up, Malik," Bakura growled out. He remembered alright. He remembered that the only reason he survived was because he hid his soul into the Puzzle. If it wasn't for that, then he would have been food for the monsters in the Shadow Realm.

"But they have it on tape!"

"They what?!" Bakura shouted, as he snatched the DVD from Yami's hand without the other had a chance to blink. Even when the thief was in a small body, he was still skilled. "How did they get that game on tape? How do you even know this?"

"I watched it?" Malik asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Having your own body can be boring."

Bakura sighed and sat back down. It wasn't long before Kefie took over and covered himself with a couch pillow. He didn't want his face to be poked at again. He peeked a little from his protection of fabric at the others, and waited for them to assault his cheeks, but Marik had found himself interested in the DVD of Battle City Tournament. Actually, the other wanted to know whether he looked more appealing in a lavender top than in the new top that he was wearing right now. It was apparently very important to him. He needed to know if his fashion sense was rusting or something like that. It was hard to make out the point of what he was saying half the time; even Malik had trouble.

"Kefie?" Ryou asked, as he lowered himself so he was seeing the other eye-to-eye. "You have to go to school sometime next year. Mama and Yummy can't babysit you forever."

"Why not?" Kefie asked with a pout. "It's more fun when I'm with them."

"Well, at school, you'll be able to make your own friends," Ryou pointed out. "Wouldn't you like that? Well, other than 'Kura being there bothering you, I think you'll enjoy making new friends at school."

"But, what if I make new friends and Ry is all alone?" Kefie asked as he hugged the pillow cutely. "What if I don't make any friends?"

"I'm sure you'll make friends," the other replied. "You're a sweet boy."

"He'll probably have a lot of fangirls," Malik said with a chuckle. "Imagine Bakura's face when there's a bunch of little girls fawning over him."

"Malik, he's only 3," Ryou said, shaking his head. "He's not going to have fangirls."

"Hey, you never know," the other said. "Besides, it would be interesting to see how Kefie plays them around. I swear, the little kid can get anything he wants with a smile. He could probably get away with murder."

"Don't give the Spirit of the Ring any ideas," Yami warned, as he did not want to see a sudden case of murder on the news when he was drinking his morning coffee. That would not be pleasant at all.

"Don't worry. Bakura's smile is the kind where you'd suspect him even when he has a perfect alibi."

"'Kura said that he rather steal from someone named Kaaa…Baba!" Kefie said with a smile that was so very innocent, but it was turned upside down as Malik and Yami laughed out loud. Even Bakura was laughing with them. It was kind of a weird sound to hear all three of them laugh at once.

"Kaiba is called Baba?" Yugi asked. "Oh, god. That's hilarious! I should tell him."

"I don't think you'd want to do that…" Ryou said, shaking his head, but smiling nonetheless. He was looking forward to the future. It actually seemed really bright.


End file.
